Scientists discover world's smallest fish




Thursday, January 26, 2006; Posted: 10:03 a.m. EST (15:03 GMT)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Scientists have discovered the world's smallest fish on record in an acidic peat swamp in Indonesia, with a see-through body and a head that is unprotected by a skeleton, researchers said Wednesday.

Mature females of the Paedocypris progenetica, a member of the carp family, only grow to 7.9 millimeters (0.31 inches) and the males have enlarged pelvic fins and exceptionally large muscles that may be used to grasp the females during copulation, researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, published Wednesday by the Royal Society in London.

"This is one of the strangest fish that I've seen in my whole career,' said Ralf Britz, zoologist at the Natural History Museum in London, who helped analyze the fish's skeleton.

"It's tiny, it lives in acid and it has these bizarre grasping fins. I hope we'll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely."

The previous record for small size, according to the Natural History Museum in London, was held by an 8-millimeter species of Indo-Pacific goby.

The new fish was discovered on Sumatra island by fish experts Maurice Kottelat from Switzerland and Tan Heok Hui from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in Singapore. They were working with colleagues from Indonesia and with Kai-Erik Witte from the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

"You don't wake up in the morning and think today we will find the smallest fish in the world," Kottelat told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in Switzerland.

He said the record of finding the world's smallest fish was not important, preferring to focus on what he said was "scientifically significant."

"What's important is finding a complete vertebrae in a body so small," he said.

Kottelat said he first came across the fish in 1996, but originally misidentified it as a member of an already existing species. "But then we realized this one was different."

According to the researchers, the fish live in dark, tea-colored water with an acidity of ph 3, at least 100 times more acidic than rainwater. Swamps like this were once thought to harbor very few animals, but recent research has revealed that they are highly diverse and home to many species that occur nowhere else.

Peat swamps are under threat in Indonesia from fires lit by plantation owners and farmers as well as unchecked development and farming. Several populations of Paedocypris have already been lost, researchers say, according to the Natural History Museum.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Source  www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/26/tiny.fish.ap/index.html

Must take a whole bunch to have a fish fry.

And this discovery is important to the world, why?  MJD

Quoted: And this discovery is important to the world, why?  MJD

That's probably what the CEO of DuPont said when Dr. Plunkett showed him a sample of Teflon in 1938.

Doesn't look transparent to me.

NEWS FLASH;

"Worlds smallest fish has exceptionally large muscles"

Quoted: Quoted: And this discovery is important to the world, why?  MJD That's probably what the CEO of DuPont said when Dr. Plunkett showed him a sample of Teflon in 1938.

Are you suggesting that this little fish will improve our lives and prove useful in day to day life for millions of people and industrial applications???

Quoted: Must take a whole bunch to have a fish fry.

And given that they live in extremely acidic environments, I would imagine that they would taste pretty awful to boot.

Quoted: Doesn't look transparent to me.

I would imagine you would need a closeup view to see that it is transparent. It is actually not uncommon for fish that small to be transparent. You can buy nearly transparent tiny fish at pet stores everywhere.

Quoted: And this discovery is important to the world, why?  MJD

By all means, let's not explore the universe around us and sit in our chairs in blissful ignorance of nature...

John Wayne, you have answered your own questions.

A fish that can live in a highly acidic enviornment could possibly lead to ways of cleaning up acidic enviornments created by man.

As to transparency, the glass cat, appr 2" long is totally transparent except  for its internal organs and skeletal system.  

Quoted: And this discovery is important to the world, why?

Science is always important...the question is: why do you care if scientists were digging in a peat bog in Indonesia?

Quoted: NEWS FLASH; "Worlds smallest fish has exceptionally large muscles"

<Fish Scientist> "Obviously for grasping the female during copulation!"  
</Fish Scientist>

Quoted: Quoted: Doesn't look transparent to me. I would imagine you would need a closeup view to see that it is transparent. It is actually not uncommon for fish that small to be transparent. You can buy nearly transparent tiny fish at pet stores everywhere.

I used to have a ghekko that I could look in one ear hole and see out the other side.  

Quoted: Scientists discover world's smallest fish i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/TECH/science/01/26/tiny.fish.ap/vert.tiny.fish.ap.jpg

It's small because it's a baby

Ghost shrimp are transparent also and they're sold at WalMart.