#polypterus

[herpsandbirds]

Do you have any bichir to share? My polycule has one and he's still growing. It's very fun to watch!

OK, so this is one of my absolute favorite groups of fishes! I love these little dragons...

Barred Bichir (Polypterus delhezi), family Polypteridae, family Playpteriformes, found in the Congo River System of West Africa

photograph by Hampus Hertzman

Ornate Bichir (Polypterus ornatipinnis), family Polypteridae, family Playpteriformes, found in Lake Tanganyika and the Congo River basin in Central and East Africa

photograph by The Wet Spot

Saddled Bichir (Polypterus endlicherii), family Polypteridae, family Playpteriformes, found in lakes and rivers systems across central Africa

photograph by GoodJoseph & GibbyThick

[picturesoffishandotherthings]

Apparently this is their new favourite spot.

[pikaole]

Foil stickers for patreon ✨

More details on this post 👈

[paskuda-lynx]

I NEED THE POLYOARUS TO BE HERE.

[dexdomitor]

Was trying to get pics of the ctenopoma with the bichirs when...

Whoops. 🤣🤣🤣

The ctenopoma just folding under like "oh ok..." and accepting his life... that's the level of unbothered I strive for.

[fishteriously]

My darling idiot baby Nutmeg (Polypterus endlicheri) boops the snoot of the much larger Garlic (Polypterus senegalus) 😘

She's used to this nonsense.

[etariptra]

I’ve been thinking about mermaids recently—for no particular reason—and I was thinking, as one does, about the biology and evolutionary pressures that would cause mermaids to evolve. And I was watching something on ray-finned fish a couple weeks ago and thought, “hmmm, what if mermaids were ray-finned fish?” Which led me down the rabbit hole of a type of fish native to the Nile, bichirs (Polypterus), they are what one might call a “living fossil”. They have “primitive” lungs, and they can “walk” with their strong pectoral fins. So I thought maybe this air breathing, land crawling fish could be a good candidate for what mermaids could evolve from. Anyway, here’s a bichir mermaid.

[barghestblack]

Just a little guy [reference]