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Photo courtesy National Zoo/Jessie Cohen.
Two adult arapaima fish have died in the Amazonia exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, zoo officials said Monday. A third fish that also appears sick is being closely monitored, while a fourth has been started on antibiotics preemptively.
Zoo officials said the first fish died Nov. 19, while the second died over Thanksgiving weekend, on Friday, Nov. 27. No conclusive cause of death has been determined, but the zoo suspects a bacterial infection.
Staff could find no apparent malfunctions with the aquatic equipment inside the Amazonia exhibit. The exhibit also includes catfish and pacus, all of which officials said appear to be in good health.
Arapaima are found in the Amazon in South America, and typically grow between six to seven feet in length. The approximate age of both the two fish that died is 17, which zoo officials said is relatively long-lived for the species in captivity.
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Sushi anyone?
Phew, this is a very slow news day if we're talking about the type of animal even people who profess to being a vegetarian will eat - ya know - cuz they got no souls?
This can only mean that Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain are in town. Poor Pigman.
didn't all the stingrays die in the same exhibit earier this year?
The Zoo's really turned into Dachau-on-Rock-Creek for our animal pals. I wouldn't be suprised if the staff tried to treat the tank algae with Dr Scholls Foot Powder.
I can't even remember how many goldfish I killed during my childhood. And none of them lived to be 17 years old!!
I bet flushing those two fish down the toilet must of been a pain in the ass.
Quck- Call Jeremy Wade
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/river-monsters-battling-an-arapaima.html
or, if you like to support NGS instead, call zeb hogan.
Awesome. I'll check that out. Thanks.
But the whole man eating fish thing resonates with me. Perhaps it's a legacy of reading Monsters of God, itself resonant mostly because of Song of the Dodo.
They are sleeping with the fish.
Have we gotten to the point where we can refer to animal deaths at the National Zoo as part of an ongoing Zoopocalypse, or has the process been too spread out?
Actually, I bet if you would track deaths vs. births at NZP and CRC out in VA, they are running two to one deaths...
Those damn things look like snakeheads. If so, there's a pond in Crofton that the zookeepers can head to to restock.
The zoo reminds me of Ernst Stavro Blofeld's "garden of death" in the book You Only Live Twice.
The Japanese (obsessed with suicide, evidently) flock to this volcanic island teeming with toxic plants to die. Or they usually are eaten by a pack of piranhas.
Maybe these fish had a crise de koi?
The link's dead, too.
This can't possibly be true, for it would mean that there are actually animals at the National Zoo. Every time I visit it is a long walk, occasionally interruputed by construction, empty habitats and statues of animals.
I needed an Arapaima belt to go with my Oryx skinned boots. It really does bring the whole ensemble together.
I heard the fish tried to escape with microfilm they intended to release to PETA, but they were caught this afternoon as they tried to board the metro at Gallery Place. The film, however, has not been recovered.