Fish, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 24, 2022

Giant 67-pound goldfish reeled in from French lake may be one of the largest ever caught

A British angler has caught one of the world's largest goldfish on record after an epic battle with the fish in a French lake. The fisher landed the 67-pound (30 kilograms) fish, nicknamed The Carrot, after a 25-minute tug-of-war at Bluewater Lakes in France's northeast Champagne province. A hybrid between...

Jan 5, 2023

Invasive rats are changing how reef fish behave. It's because there's not enough bird poop.

It's no secret that invasive rats can cause widespread and long-lasting damage to tropical island ecosystems, but now, a new finding reveals that the invasive rodents' impacts may extend even further than the land on which they scamper; these ravenous critters can also disrupt the surrounding marine ecosystem. In the...

Jan 31, 2023

Unicorn-like blind fish discovered in dark waters deep in Chinese cave

Lurking within the dark waters of Chinese caves is a bizarre fish species that has an uncanny resemblance with mythical equine creature. The newfound fish weirdos, which researchers discovered hiding in a pitch-black pool the size of a kitchen table, have no scales or color, tiny rudimentary eyes that likely...

Mar 3, 2023

Upside-down anglerfish and other alien oddities spotted in one of the world's deepest trenches

One of the deepest ocean trenches on Earth, the Kermadec Trench in the South Pacific, is home to rarely seen sea creatures living in the hadal zone, at depths between 20,000 and 36,000 feet (6,000 to 11,000 meters). Now, a new underwater expedition has released stunning photos of these oddities....

Mar 8, 2023

Ancient monster fish 'Dunk' was short and chunky, study finds

A 360 million-year-old sea monster that was once thought to be as big as a bus was actually less than half that long, but just as chunky, a new study finds. The bony fish Dunkleosteus terrelli, nicknamed Dunk, was one of many superpredators that prowled the oceans during the Devonian...

Mar 28, 2023

Why did a weird goblin shark going viral on Twitter blow up into a bizarre scientific spat?

In August 2020, a strange, long-nosed creature washed up on a beach in Greece and caught the attention of a passerby. Giannis Papadakis photographed the specimen and sent it to a team of scientists, who identified it as a remarkably preserved juvenile goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni). This was an extraordinary...

Apr 5, 2023

Deepest-dwelling fish ever seen is a ghostly snailfish spotted more than 27,000 feet beneath the ocean surface

A ghostly white snailfish has unknowingly smashed the record for the deepest fish ever seen after it was filmed at more than 27,000 feet beneath the ocean surface. Scientists on board the research vessel DSSV Pressure Drop stumbled across the snailfish, which is likely a juvenile, in September 2022 while...

May 5, 2023

Elusive cannibal fish from the twilight zone are washing up on Oregon beaches and no one knows why

Bizarre, rarely seen cannibalistic fish with giant eyes and dagger-like fangs have been washing up along the Oregon coast, leaving experts stumped. In a Facebook post on May 1, Oregon State Parks wrote that several lancetfish had been found on beaches from Nehalem south to Bandon in recent weeks. No...

May 11, 2023

Piranhas swarm 8 tourists at Brazilian resort, leaving them with bloody legs and feet

A school of piranhas attacked holiday makers playing in a stream in a Brazilian resort on May 1, leaving at least eight people injured. The fish tore at the bathers' legs and feet with their razor-sharp teeth, driving them out of the water and onto a tourist beach in Tarumã-Açu,...

May 25, 2023

Why are cave-dwelling eels growing skin over their left eyes? It may be evolution in action.

Moray eels that lurk in gloomy, underwater caves appear to be adjusting to the darkness by growing skin over their eyes. The newly described bean-eyed snake moray (Uropterygius cyamommatus) is the first moray eel species known to inhabit anchialine caves — caves carved into volcanic or limestone rock that are...

Jun 15, 2023

Gigantic, 9.4-foot-long catfish is the largest ever caught

Whiskered, marble-skinned giants lurk in the murky waters of Italy's longest river. These behemoths are prized targets for anglers, but a fisher recently hooked a truly colossal individual — and it may be the biggest ever found. Alessandro Biancardi, an Italian angler, pulled an enormous, 9.4-foot-long (2.85 meters) catfish from...

Jun 19, 2023

Do fish get thirsty?

Fish are constantly surrounded by water, but do they get thirsty? And how would they even drink? To answer these question, it's crucial to understand how water — a solvent — interacts with other substances like salt, which is a solute, across a cell membrane. Through a process called osmosis,...

Jun 29, 2023

Watch rare footage of a shapeshifting eel with 'remarkably full tummy' swimming in the deep sea

Ocean explorers recently stumbled upon an extremely unusual sight in the Pacific's deep sea — a rare, shapeshifting gulper eel with its most recent meal still clearly visible in its stomach. The pelican eel (Eurypharynx pelecanoides), also known as a gulper eel, was spotted June 20 by researchers on board...

Jul 16, 2023

Why do deep-sea fish look like aliens?

Many of the fish lurking in the depths of the ocean resemble the alien villains of horror films, with gargantuan teeth, glow-in-the-dark bodies and bulging eyeballs. But why do these fish have such otherworldly features? The bizarre appearance of deep-sea fish is largely a reflection of the extreme environment they...

Jul 21, 2023

Rare piranha-like fish with 'human teeth' caught by young angler in Oklahoma

A young boy in Oklahoma has caught a bizarre, piranha-like fish with eerily human-like teeth hidden behind its fishy lips. Charlie Clinton caught the exotic fish, known as a pacu, in his neighborhood pond on the weekend of July 15, according to a Facebook post from the Oklahoma Department of...