Have you ever heard of a fish that could actually walk out of water? For evolutionists, this could be one of the most interesting, yet terrifying, discoveries. To move outside of water, the walking catfish uses "spines" and flexes its body back and forth as if it were walking. Also, they have a larger breathing organ which allows them to breathe oxygen outside of water. This helps them with traveling longer distances, especially while or after it rains. They’re known to be one of Florida’s most invasive species. They are quite threatening to the environments they’re invading. They’ve been know to invade aquaculture farms and feast on their fish stock. Farmers in the areas they’ve invaded had to put up fences to keep them out. They also carry the disease enteric septicemia (ESC), which is caused by the bacterium Edwadsiella ictaluri. There are high possibilities of these wild catfish spreading the disease through farmed catfish. Scientists don’t know much about walking catfish. They do know, though, that the invaders were very pervasive and had one of the most harmful introductions out of most native species. They were originally released in Florida on accident by Penagra …show more content…
Zoologists, or scientists who study animals, observe the behaviors, habitat, and eating habits of these animals. They’ve hypothesized a great deal of ideas, such as cutting off their food supply or even poisoning the invaders, but found neither would work. I believe the best thing to do is capture the fish and return them to an environment they can coexist naturally in, without any harm. Although scientists have yet to come to a conclusion, they have prevented the spread of this species by outlawing the possession of a walking catfish. Fortunately, the animals can’t withstand cold temperatures for a very long time. This has also kept them out of quite a few other cool climate