Oldest living aquarium fish: Methuselah The Lungfish sets world record
SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States--The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is home to an Australian lungfish named Methuselah; believed to be a "she," weighs about 24 pounds, and is at least 90 years old, setting the new world record for the Oldest living aquarium fish in the world, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.
"She's really, basically just a big puppy dog," Aquarium curator Charles Delbeek
said.
"She's very gentle, very slow moving, but when they want to move fast they can. They can jump out of that tank and that's why we have a guard around it," he explained.
The Academy will be sending a tiny sample of her fin to researchers in Australia, who will try to figure out her exact age, the ABC 7 News reports.
The name Methuselah comes from the Bible. Methuselah was Noah's grandfather, and he lived for 969 years.
She enjoys figs, but only when fresh, not frozen and thawed.
Charles Delbeek, curator at the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences about Methuselah on NPR: "She's very mellow. She can be a little feisty. You know, she - they are a slow-moving fish, but they can have bursts of speed, and she can jump out of her tank if she really wants to or she's startled. But she's very gentle and very slow-moving and very easily handled."
"Methuselah is special for reasons other than her age and proclivity for fresh fruit. Lungfish are “living fossils,” which can breathe on land and in water. The lungfish’s evolutionary advantages include the ability to survive in mud until rains return and use limb-like pectoral fins to shuffle from pond to pond," The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“The most valuable fishes in the Steinhart Aquarium are a pair of Australian Lungfishes,” a 1947 Chronicle column read. “These strange creatures — with green scales looking like fresh artichoke leaves — are known to scientists as a possible ‘missing link’ between terrestrial and aquatic animals.”
The GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for the Oldest fish in captivity ever was set by a 88-year-old female European eel (Anguilla anguilla) named Putte in the aquarium at lsingborg Museum, Sweden, making her the oldest fish recorded. She was allegedly born in 1860 in the Sargasso Sea, North Atlantic, and was caught in a river as a 3-year-old elver.
Earning that @sfchronicle coverage since 1947: Methuselah the lungfish, lover of fresh figs and belly rubs. https://t.co/TRxKgwTZDx pic.twitter.com/nByV48r38w
— CA AcademyOfSciences (@calacademy) January 5, 2022
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is a renowned scientific and educational institution dedicated to exploring, explaining, and sustaining life on Earth.
Based in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, it's the only place in the world to house an aquarium, planetarium, rainforest, and natural history museum—plus cutting-edge research programs—all under one living roof.
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