Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about weather fish. Weather fish are named so because they can predict the weather! They’re like Pudge the Fish - but they don’t control the weather - they just know when it’s gonna get bad. Before a thunderstorm, these fish will grow agitated. Because of this, weather fish are often called harbingers of bad weather. While this isn’t totally accurate, weather fish are believed to be able to detect changes in barometric pressure via small bones connecting their swim bladders to their inner ears. Before a storm, barometric pressure drops, and weather fish can sense this!

There are currently just under ten described species of weather fish. They live in tropical and temperate freshwater systems throughout Asia and Europe. Some of these fish can tolerate cold water to the point that frost forms. Their tolerance of colder temperatures have allowed them to survive in places they’ve been introduced. Weather fish are considered invasive outside of their native habitats because there is evidence to show that they cause destruction when introduced to non-native areas.

Weather fish can also live in oxygen deprived water. Like betta fish, weather fish can breathe oxygen from the air, though they go about it in a different way. A weather fish’s intestines can turn into a lung like structure. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, the intestines can actually revert back to their digestive duties when the lung structure isn’t needed, such as during colder months when there’s more oxygen in the water of the weather fish’s habitat. Because they can breathe oxygen from the air, weather fish can live in dried up puddles with not much more than a layer of mud. They may stay in this state for a month or longer waiting for the next rain shower. Weather fish are threatened by habitat loss and warming weather, as some of these temporary puddles may become more permanently dry for longer periods of time. Weather fish may also be eaten by eels.

Weather fish actually look somewhat like eels with their long, slender bodies. They can reach about a foot (30.5cm) in length with females being longer than males. They have barbels on their faces like catfish and they use these to sense their environments and to find food. Weather fish have poor eyesight and no teeth, but they can sense prey like insects, worms, copepods, mollusks, algae, and more using these barbels. Weather fish are demersal fish, meaning they tend to stay towards the bottom of the water column. They prefer sandy or muddy bottom areas, and may even burrow into the substrate with only their heads sticking out! They may also bury themselves in leaf litter.

Weather fish can be found in ponds, pools, floodplains, wetlands, marshes, ditches, swamps, rice fields, and more. Their young are laid upstream and make their way down stream after hatching. Thousands of eggs may be laid by a female and these will hatch just over a week after being laid. There’s debate about how many eggs a weather fish female can produce, though it’s likely at least ten thousand in a single breeding season! The young fish will make their way downstream to live with the adults until they’re ready to breed, at which point they’ll return to upstream areas to spawn. Something amazing about these fish is that they frequently produce offspring that are genetically different from their parents. This has made weather fish an interesting area of study for genetics!

For more facts on weather fish check out the links in the description. Thank you to Shelly for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.