Climbing Fish

Climbing Fish

In the rivers of the Far East there lives a kind of fish that is called the climbing fish, because it lives without water in this equatorial climate. The best-known species is a 25-cm (10 inches) fish found in India, Malaysia, and the Philippines and commonly called the climbing perch because of its resemblance to the perch in general form. The mouth is relatively large, with conical teeth. The fish, generally carnivorous, is able to leave pools that are in danger of drying and to travel on land, owing to the water retained in interstices connected with the gills. It is even said to climb trees by means of its spinous gill covers and by fixing its anal fin in cavities of the bark. It usually leaves the water at night when dew is on the ground.
In doing so, it makes use of glands that exist only in this kind of fish. These glands produce a kind of liquid which keeps its gills wet until it finds water, whereupon these glands shut down. If it does not find water, then it climbs trees and lives in the moist treetops. In that case the glands which keep its gills moist turn into a breathing apparatus like that of humans and other animals.
These fish are still being studied by zoologists. But they are no more than signs of the existence of the Creator, may He be Glorified, Who encompasses even these little fish with His care and Mercy, and keeps them alive in the sea and on land.