Fish with legs - Curiosities and photos

Author: Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation: 4 August 2021
Update Date: 13 November 2024
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Kids vocabulary - Sea Animals - Learn English for kids - English educational video
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Fish are vertebrates whose diversity of shapes, sizes and lifestyles make them unique. Within the different lifestyles they have, it is worth highlighting the species that evolved in their environment to obtain very peculiar features. There are fish whose fins have a structure that turns them into real "legs".

This should not surprise us, since the evolution of the legs took place about 375 million years ago, when the Sarcopterian fish Tiktaalik lived, a fish with lobe fins which had various characteristics of tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates).

Studies indicate that the legs arose from the need to move from places where the water was shallow and to help in the search for food sources. In this article by PeritoAnimal, we will explain if there is fish with legs - trivia and photos. You will see that different species have such fins with leg functions. Good reading.


Are there fish with legs?

Not, there are no fish with real legs. However, as mentioned above, some species have fins adapted to "walk" or move on the sea or river bed, and others may even leave the water for short periods in search of food or to move between bodies of water.

These species, in general, place their fins closer to the body to have better support, and other species, such as the Bichir-de-Senegal (Polypterus senegulus), have other characteristics that allowed them to successfully exit the water, as their body is more elongated and their skull is slightly separated from the rest of the body, which gives them greater mobility.

This shows how fish have a great plasticity to adapt to your environment, which may reveal how the first fish ventured out of the water during evolution and how, later on, species that exist today developed fins (or what we'll call here, fish legs) that allow them to "walk" .


Types of fish with legs

So let's meet some of these fish with legs, that is, they have swimmers that act as legs for them. The best known are the following:

Anabas testudineus

This species of the Anabantidae family is found in India, China and the Wallace Line (Asia region). It measures about 25 cm in length and is a fish that lives in fresh waters of lakes, rivers and in plantation areas, however, can tolerate salinity.

If the place they inhabit dries up, they can leave you using their pectoral fins as "legs" to move around. They are very resistant to oxygen-poor environments. Interestingly, it can take up to a day to reach another habitat, but can survive up to six days out of water. To do this, they often dig and burrow into wet mud in order to survive. For these characteristics, it tops our list of fish with legs.


In this other article you will find the rarest fish in the world.

Batfish (Dibranchus spinosus)

The batfish or marine bat belongs to the Ogcocephalidae family, found in tropical and subtropical waters of all seas and oceans in the world, with the exception of the Mediterranean Sea. Its body is very particular, it has a flat and rounded shape, adapted to life at the bottom of water bodies, that is, they are benthic. your tail has two peduncles that come out of its sides and that are modifications of its pectoral fins that act as legs.

In turn, the pelvic fins are very small and are located under the throat and function similarly to the forelegs. your two pairs of fins are very muscular and strong, which allows them to walk on the bottom of the sea, which they do most of the time - that's why we call it a type of fish with legs - as they are not good swimmers. Once they identify potential prey, they sit still to lure it through a lure they have on their face and then capture it with their protractile mouth.

sladenia shaefersi

Belonging to the Lophiidae family, this fish is found in South Carolina, northern United States, and also in the Lesser Antilles. It's a big species, reaching over 1 meter long. Its head is rounded but not flat and has a laterally compressed tail.

It has two filaments coming out of its head and also thorns of different lengths around its head and along its body. It inhabits rocky bottoms where it chases its prey thanks to its design perfectly camouflaged with the environment. This legged fish can move on the seabed by "walking" thanks to its pectoral fins modified into the shape of feet.

Thymicthys politus

A species of the Brachionichthyidae family, it inhabits the coasts of Tasmania. Very little is known about the biology of this fish. It can reach about 13 cm long and its appearance is very striking, as its body is entirely red and covered with warts, with a crest on its head.

Their pelvic fins are smaller and are found below and close to the head, while their pectoral fins are very developed and appear to have "fingers" that help them walk on the seabed. Prefers sandy areas near reefs and coral shores. Thus, in addition to being considered a fish with legs, it is a "fish with fingers".

African lungfish (Protopterus annectens)

It is a lung fish of the Protopteridae family that lives in rivers, lakes or vegetated swamps in Africa. It has a length of more than one meter and its body is elongated (angular-shaped) and grayish. Unlike other types of walking fish, this fish can walk on the bottom of rivers and other freshwater bodies, thanks to its pectoral and pelvic fins, which in this case are filamentous, and can also jump.

It is a species whose shape has persisted almost unchanged for millions of years. It is able to survive the dry season thanks to the fact that it digs in the mud and burrows into a mucus lining that it secretes. He can spend months in this state semi-letter breathing atmospheric oxygen because it has lungs.

tigra lucerne

From the Triglidae family, this legged fish is a marine species that inhabits the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. It is a gregarious species that spawns on the coast. It reaches more than 50 cm in length and its body is robust, laterally compressed and reddish-orange in color and smooth in appearance. Its pectoral fins are highly developed, reaching the anal fin.

Fish of this species have three rays that come out of the base of their pectoral fins that allow them to "crawl or walk" on the sandy seabed, as they act with small legs. These rays also work as sensory or tactile organs with which they probe the seabed for food. They have the unique ability to produce "snoring" thanks to the vibrations of the swim bladder, in the face of threats or in the breeding season.

Mudfish (several species of the genus Periophthalmus)

From the Gobiidae family, this peculiar species lives in tropical and subtropical waters of Asia and Africa, in areas of river mouths where the waters are brackish. It is typical of mangrove areas, where they usually hunt. This fish with legs measures about 15 cm in length and its body is quite elongated with a large head and very striking eyes, as they are protruding and are located frontally, almost glued together.

It can be said that their lifestyle is amphibian or semi-aquatic, as they can breathe atmospheric oxygen thanks to gas exchange through the skin, pharynx, oral mucosa and gill chambers where they store oxygen. Their name mudfish is due to the fact that, in addition to being able to breathe outside the water, they always need muddy areas to maintain body moisture and moisture. thermoregulation, and it is also the place where they feed most of the time. Their pectoral fins are strong and have cartilage that allows them to get out of the water in muddy areas and with their pelvic fins they can stick to surfaces.

You may also be interested in this other article about fish that breathe out of water.

Chaunax pictus

It belongs to the Chaunacidae family and is distributed in all the world's oceans in temperate and tropical waters, except in the Mediterranean Sea. Its body is robust and rounded, laterally compressed at the end, reaching about 40 cm in length. It has a reddish-orange color and its skin is quite thick, covered by small thorns, it can also inflate, which gives you the appearance of a bloated fish. Both their pectoral and pelvic fins, which are located under the head and are very close to each other, are very developed and are used as real legs for moving on the sea floor. It is a fish that has little ability to swim.

Is the axolotl a fish with legs?

the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a very curious animal, native and endemic to Mexico, which occupies lakes, lagoons and other shallow bodies of fresh water with abundant aquatic vegetation in the south-central part of the country, reaching around 15 cm in length. It is an amphibian that is in "critical extinction hazard" because of human consumption, loss of habitat and introduction of exotic fish species.

It is an exclusively aquatic animal that looks like a fish, however, contrary to what many believe, this animal is not a fish, but a salamander-like amphibian whose adult body retains the characteristics of a larva (a process called neotenia) with a laterally compressed tail, external gills, and the presence of paws.

And now that you know the main fish with legs and have seen pictures of fish legs, you might be interested in this other article by PeritoAnimal about saltwater fish.

If you want to read more articles similar to Fish with legs - Curiosities and photos, we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the animal world.