New hatchlings in the Aquarium
Thursday 10 May 2012
At ZSL London Zoo we are celebrating the arrival of some baby magrove killifish, that hatched out very recently in the Aquarium.
© ZSL
Mangrove killifish are an astounding species of fish, for a number of reasons:
- Natural populations are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, the only natural example of cloning among vertebrates.
- Has been observed to "flip" out of water to escape predation. It has also been observed moving amphibiously between ponds or burrows and can survive for prolonged periods out water living on the forest floor.
- In addition to tolerating extremes in salinity and temperature, it also tolerates high sulfide levels. As such, it is generally found in areas lacking other fish species, such as crab burrows, stagnant pools and impounded ditches.
- its distribution closely parallels that of the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle)
You can come and visit the new arrivals at ZSL London Zoo Aquarium , where we are also breeding several species of extremely rare or extinct in the wild species of killifish, as part of our collaborative project, Fish Net .
