Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-09-11
SOME QUEER FISHES.

singular Exhibitions of Breathing Habits
and Climbing Propensities.
Taking first the Ophiocephalus tribe, or
"snake-headed' fishes, found in the Indian
region, we meet with singular exhibitions of
breathing habits, writes Dr. Andrew VIII
son, +. r. s. E, F. L. s., in Once Week.
1t Is known of these fishes that they can
survive long periods of dryness, living as
they do in the semi-fluid mud of rivers and
lakes Often they may be found lying dor
mant beneath the s'hard-baked crustsof the
bottom OF tank, from which every drop Of
water has disappeared" Now, IN these
tshes:it is clear breathing must be largely
suspended, and life goes on at very low
pressure, so to speak; but so long as the
mud is soft enough, these fishes can be
seen to rise to the surface at intervals to
gulp In air. That is to say, when hard
pressed for water, these fishes have devel-
oped habit of using air taken directly
from the atmosphere for the purpose of
purifying their blood-a function naturally
carried on by their gills. They have con-
verted themselves, for the time being, into
land-animals. Nor is this all. These
''snake-headed' fishes Of India, while en-
joying their ordinary life in the water, are
are also seen to gulp down air from the at
mosphere DR.. Day tells us that this habit
IS to be regularly observed in these fishes
de adds the interesting observation that if
net be suspended below the surface of the
water Of the vessel in which they are con-
tanned, so as to prevent the fishes from ris-
ing to the top of the water TO breathe in the
air, they will actually perish and die by suf-
location. SO that just as ordinary fishes
die suffocated out of the water, these fishes
perish from a like cause if they are kept in
the water.
fishes includes the climbing perch of India
and its neighbors. In 1877, one Daldorf, in
paper read before the Linn8an Society of
London, detailed the fact that he had cap
tured climbing perch Tor Anabas) while
the fish was climbing palm-tree growing
near pond. The fish had attained q
height OF five feet above the water, and was
proceeding to a higher level still By aid
Of the spines in front of it's gill covers, it
held on to the trees bark. 1t then bent its
tail, and inserted into the bark it's hinder
tail-spines. Thus fixing the hinder part of
the body as a kind of fulcrum or support,
the fish then released it's head, and made
further ascent by Strengthening its body.
In the Malay tongue the fish has been named
the ''tree- climber" and it is known to
walk, or rather to waddle, over the land in
search of fresh ponds and pools. The gills
are kept moist in it's land journeys by pc
euliar arrangement of the bones of the
head. These bones are greatly twisted
and contorted, and serve apparently either
to retain moisture for the gills, or to hold a
supply of air sufficient for the breathing
operations of the fish.
But excelling in interest, even the curious
fishes just named, we find the Lepidosiren,
or mud-fsh, of the Amazon and Gambia
rivers, and the Ceratodus, or ''Barramun-
da," of the rivers of Queensland In most
ordinary fishes, such as the cod, salmon,
herring, etc, an organ called the air-blad-
der, swimming bladder, or sound exists
The use OF this organ is apparently that of
enabling the fish to rise or to sink in the
water, by releasing or COMPRISING the
gases the 'sound2 contains. This bladder
varies very much in shape and conforma-
ton, and in some cases it is seen to commu-
nicate with the throat of the fish by means
of duct or tube. In deepsea fishes the
gas contained in the bladder is mostly
oxygen, while in fresh-water fishes much
nitrogen with little oxygen and carbonic
! acid gas are found. These gases appear to
be secreted or formed by the air-bladder
itself. In some ordinary fishes, in which a
dense network of blood-vessels exists in
connection with the air-bladder, we may
readily believe that this organ may assist
in PURIFYING the blood.