My first introduction to fish came with fishing in an artificial pond fed by a canal in Yuma County Arizona. My dad took us fishing on one occasion (like all narcissists he had his days). I caught a fish, a small Largemouth Bass if I recall right. We also got a Bluegill and a Catfish. He never took us fishing again. I guess he was in a good mood that day. Still I marveled at these watery creatures. Not at all known to me, as I was much a creature of the desert.
Years later I got interested in tropical fishes, in part because my one friend at the time started to get interested and his parents, who were citrus farmers, bought him a fairly sizable aquarium. I was able to scrape enough money to buy a five gallon tank and filter. My first fish were the usual, Freshwater Angelfish, Amazonian Catfish. Guppys, and Swordtails. They fascinated me, but since I was living in a desert, I had little money to pursue the hobby, and eventually the fish died, I gave up on that particular interest. Still, when I had a chance, which was rare, I did read about fish. Especially books by William Beebe and Eugene Clark (See: www.dailykos.com/...)
But what is a fish? My education in college soon gave me an answer! A fish is a generalized term characterizing a disparate group of organisms, which are not necessarily that related genetically, at least since the Cambrian (See: en.wikipedia.org/...). True, they probably had a common ancestor back in the Cambrian, but then so did just about all the living forms we have today. We are here dealing with four different lineages — Lampreys and Hagfish, Sharks, Rays, Skates, and Chimeras, Lobefins (including Lungfish and the Coelacanth), and, what could be called true fish, or Bony Fish, plus several extinct lines. We biologists characterize such artificial groupings as paraphyletic, in this case not having a common ancestor until back so far in time that they start merging with the ancestors of much of life, except for bacteria and sponges.. We are descended from Lobefins, and so may be thought of as highly evolved “fish” if you want to generalize that far back in the evolution of life! There is in fact a BBC podcast called No Such Thing As a Fish (See www.nosuchthingasafish.com), and even a Simpsons parody noted the problem! See: www.reddit.com/...) However, we humans had to go through the synapsid reptiles in the Permian, and none of those look like fish! Still see:
Fossil Fish at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So “fish” is what everybody calls a vertebrate that lives in water, lacks legs, has gills and swims, although some amphibians, like Amphiumas, have such tiny legs that they could be mistaken for eels. I once caught one of these in the River Styx in Florida. I might also note that “reptile” is similarly a general term, covering three basic lineages — Crocodilians (and technically Dinosaurs and Birds), Turtles, and Lizards, Snakes and the Tuatara, the last of the Rhynchocephalia. I once did a presentation with the title “Reptiles do not Exist” for a local Audubon chapter in New Mexico.
I have had some experience with at least three of the four groupings of fish, and I may have seen a Lungfish years ago at an aquarium. In one of these groups-,Lampreys to be precise, I only have experience from dissecting two in my first zoology course. I also dissected two dogfish sharks (stinky mess). Sharks I have only seen in the wild once off Seahorse Key in Florida and also at several aquaria, including the Albuquerque, New Orleans (pre- Katrina), and the Seattle Aquariums. They were especially imposing at New Orleans, where the enclosure included a section overhead. My older daughter was luckier in that she saw Whitetip Reef Sharks in the Galapagos on her honeymoon. These “fish” have cartilaginous skeletons and some (but not all! See:www.amnh.org/...) have to be in constant motion to properly respire. Nurse Sharks are one of the exceptions. On the other hand I saw a number of Stingrays off the beach near San Felipe in Baja California, as well as several species of other rays in aquariums, and a Chimera caught off the Edmonds Fishing Pier in Washington State.
Spotted Ratfish, A Chimera from Edmonds Fishing Pier, Washington.
Possibly one of the weirdest of the shark-like types is the Guitarfish, one of which I photographed at the Seattle Aquarium a few years ago.
Bowmouth Guitarfish, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle, Washington. Pretty weird and very fast.
Another view of the Bull Shark at Albuquerque Aquarium, New Mexico.
Whitetip Reef Shark, Islote Tintoreras, Isla Isabela, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, taken by my older daughter on her honeymoon.
Rays are difficult to photograph, but I got a passable shot of a Leopard Whipray at the Seattle Aquarium. The taxonomy of rays is complicated and the more we know the more complex it becomes.
Leopard Whipray, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle, Washington.
Primitive Bony Fish include Gars, like this Longnose Gar, a fish I actually saw in the wild from the bridge over the River Styx in Florida. Bowfins, another member of the clade, are fairly common predators in Florida and often accidently caught. They can be eaten if properly prepared (See: en.wikipedia.org/...).
Longnose Gar, Albuquerque Aquarium, New Mexico.
Sturgeons are long lived ancient bony fish, prized for their eggs as caviar. All are threatened or endangered because of that and the IUCN Redbook lists the whole taxon as the most threatened group in the world.
Shovelnose Sturgeon, Albuquerque Aquarium, New Mexico.
The more recent Bony Fish are the group thought of as “fish” by most people.
Blue-striped Grunt, a modern Bony Fish, Albuquerque Aquarium, New Mexico.
Clown Fish, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle, Washington.
Bald Eagle with salmon it caught, Edmonds Fishing Pier, Washington.
I’ve fished occasionally since my younger days. Once I played surf caster when one of my associates lent me his rod, and I actually caught a fish! My wife and I cane pole fished off Cedar Key and also caught a few edible fish, plus too many Toadfish so we gave up. That, plus my one experience as a kid, are my total record as a successful angler. All other attempts, including one in the River Styx, were failures! As a fisherman I am a failure!
All photos except of the Whitetip Reef Shark, are by me.
