There are fishes underground

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I was outside with my mum while she did some gardening work. She finds the activity relaxing and while she was there, she pointed towards a small puddle of water in her farmland that had fish inside. She doesn't run a fish pond and I don't think fishes come with rain, so there must be an explanation for this phenomenon.

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Actually, in Bayelsa, fishes randomly popping up in a body of water isn't anything new. In fact, you could literally just leave a puddle of water on the ground in almost anywhere and when you come back, you'll see fishes inside.

While I was drinking one day, my thought was that perhaps there's something in this terrain that causes rapid evolution of microorganisms into fishes. I figured that the evolutionary trend that spanned billions of years to create life might happen in a matter of days due to the terrain. Obviously, this is just drunk reasoning because if that's the case, those fish would have evolved intoto humans or even worse, Crocs.

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Vile creature

Funny enough, my theory is partially true, in that the cause of this phenomenon where fishes randomly pop up from underground is due to the terrain but not due to any elaborate evolutionary trend. Bummer.

I'm currently on holiday at Bayelsa, which is also my state of origin. Bayelsa is a coastal state and the southernmost part of the country. It is a state that is literally below sea level, so virtually every land you see had to be reclaimed from a swamp or something.

When we moved into Bayelsa from Port Harcourt in 2006, I noticed this phenomenon when some guys were digging a ditch during a construction work. I noticed that after just one dip into the soil with the shovel, there were tiny fish looking creatures slithering there. It was a first for me back then and that is actually a common theme around here.

The story behind this phenomenon is that despite most of the state being sand-filled before any construction can be done, some of the aquatic life adapted to the situation and found a way to survive underground.

Apparently, there are over 200 species of fish that exhibit troglomorphism. This feature enables this type aquatic life commonly called cave fish to survive in places with low sunlight, and limited amount of food. The feature also leads to a loss in pigmentation and the development of attenuated bodies and/or appendages(Yup, fishes with limbs).

In Bayelsa, a certain type of catfish exhibits this interesting biological feature and I have to say, they are quite tasty. I don't know about the population of these types of fish in my area but everyone I know absolutely loves hunting and eating them.

They are naturally occurring gifts from nature and they've been around for so long that they even have traditional names. One specie that is presumably catfish is called "Oluomo" in my dialect and there are some colloquially described as "bush fish"(Not related to the leopard bush fish)

Pretty fascinating how there's so much cool on planet Earth. If there are fishes that defy logic and have limbs, I wonder what other kinds of strange organisms we'll find beneath the earth.




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animals science fishes underground life stem palnet neoxian archon
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I assumed rain water moved the fishes from a river whenever I see such, didn't know they actually came from underground

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Yup. They developed features that enables them to survive in that condition.

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Just like humans, fishes also have the capacity to adapt to their environment. In the absence of water, fishes can dig deep into the ground and stay hibernated in the wet mud. Some scientists in the past used this phenomenon to back up the theory of spontaneous generation because of limited knowledge back then. Thanks to science, now we know better.

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Wow this was an interesting read. I have also wondered how fish gets life in ponds. So rain is the major contributor and all this magic happens when there is a heavy rain.

I have also heard about this fish called potato fish that hibernates under the soil when there is a serious draught. It was indeed a great read. Thanks. Cheers! !BEER !wine

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