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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Fish fascination If a living thing (other than humans of course) moves around by itself, it is classed as an animal. Plants cannot move by themselves but animals can and they do in so many different ways. Animals are found everywhere, leaping, creeping, running and walking in forests, deserts, meadows and snowy places. Swimming, splashing and floating in rivers, lakes, ponds and oceans. They can be seen buzzing and flapping and fluttering above the ground or digging, sliding and squirming below the ground. To make it easier to study animals, scientists have arranged all animals into classes. An animal class is made up of animals that are all alike in important ways.There are many kinds of classes and each one has a name. Each kind of animal belongs to one of the six most important classes. They are mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, arthropods and amphibians. Today, let's look at the fish world. Many of you will be fascinated with the different types of fish we usually see only in movies or aquariums (places where fish are kept), because they live in water and do not fly or move around on land like other animals.Any animal that lives in water and has gills, scales and fins on its body, is classified as a fish. Sometimes it is hard to tell what is a fish and what isn't. For instance, a sea horse doesn't look like a fish but it is a fish while a dolphin looks like a fish but isn't! If you are curious as to what fish in both oceans and rivers eat, let's check it out. In the oceans most fish eat only other fish. In rivers and lakes fish eat fish too but they add other tasty things to their diet. Some eat worms, insects, snails, frogs and crayfish. Some kinds of fish eat only plants. A few kinds of fish eat both plants and animals. Champion egg laying mums Do all fish lay eggs?- No, there are some who don't lay eggs, and others who lay only a few. Some fish lay millions of eggs! A mother herring lays more than thirty thousand eggs at a time a mother sardine as many as a hundred thousand eggs, a mother cod as many as four million eggs and a mother turbot as many as nine million. Fish eggs have no shells to protect them. They are round and soft like bits of jelly. Most eggs never hatch because they either get washed ashore and dry up or are gobbled up by other fish. Baby sitting fin fathers In the world of fish, it's the father that does most of the baby sitting. For instance a father of the smallmouth black bass fish species starts to take care of his babies even before they are hatched. As soon as the mother bass lays the eggs in a hole which sticks to the sand, the father chases her away and takes over guard duty all by himself.He will fan the eggs with his tail to ensure the water around the eggs stay fresh all the time and help them hatch. Even when the eggs hatch he continues to protect his babies until they can swim. When they start to swim he accompanies them and guards them while they find food. A father sea horse keeps the mother's eggs in a pouch on his stomach. When the eggs hatch, baby sea horses shoot out of their father's pouch. A father sea catfish protects his babies in his mouth until they hatch. Even after they hatch he keeps them in their mouth till they are big enough to protect themselves. Then he spits them into the water and away they swim.
Wierd fish There are thousands of kinds of fishes. There are a number of strange looking fish. Here are some of them Mudskipper - It has a frog head and a fish body. It often crawls onto land and hops about. It can jump and catch flying insects in its mouth. Cow fish - It has horns on its head. Elephant - nose mormyrid - It has a long nose that looks like an elephant's trunk. Buffer - This fish can fill itself with air till it looks like a balloon with eyes and a mouth. Flounder - It has both eyes on one side of its body.
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