On a recent morning at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, kids in school uniforms formed a cluster near the Caribbean reef tank, with its exotic day-glo fish. They applauded for the penguins, gasped at the sharks and snakes, and made a beeline for the dolphin show.
Meanwhile, Granddad, an Australian lungfish that was brought to the aquarium in April 1933 to attract visitors attending the World's Fair, was being ignored.
Like a bump on a log: Granddad, an Australian lungfish, has been lounging at the bottom of a Chicago tank since 1933.
(M. Spencer Green -- AP)
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True, he performs no flashy tricks in his corner tank. But, in addition to being a member of a type of fish more than 370 million years old, Granddad is "the oldest aquatic animal in a public aquarium in the world," the Shedd says.
"He's an amazing animal," said the aquarium's Roger Germann. Of the 22,000 animals at the aquarium, Granddad is among a handful that the staff has named.
Granddad seems unmoved, lounging on the bottom of his tank with four other lungfish. He is a large, drab-gray cylinder covered in bony scales. Granddad looks like a log.
"That's precisely his camouflage," said George Parsons, a scientist at the aquarium.
How do you know if a fish is feeling okay?
Animals at the aquarium are fed by hand, so staff members can monitor changes in their eating habits and other behavior. Granddad likes frozen fish, romaine lettuce and other veggies.
"If we don't see movement at all, we start to worry," Parsons said. "We watch their gills, because respiration rate is important, making sure they're not breathing too fast or breathing too slow."
So, lazing around is actually a good sign for Granddad.
Breathing is a lungfish's most fascinating trick, and observing it helps scientists study the links between fish and amphibians. "You'll hear them expel and then breathe in, like a gasp," Parsons said.
Granddad is an "obligate breather," Parsons explained. His gills have become so small, he can't rely on them alone, so he surfaces every 20 to 25 minutes to fill his single lung.
No one knows exactly how old Granddad is. At four feet long and 25 pounds, he has doubled in size since arriving at the aquarium more than 70 years ago. "We're just guessing that he was about 10 years old when he got here, but he could have been older," Parsons said. He predicts that Granddad will outlive the other species in his tank.
However, it is not certain that Granddad shouldn't be called Grandmom.
"We're just assuming -- and it may not be the case -- that he's male," Parsons said.
Suddenly, Granddad opened his mouth wide. Was he snapping at a turtle? Was he going to eat a rainbow fish?
"He was probably taking a deeper breath," Parsons said. "Maybe yawning. A yawn-type situation. Fish yawn."
-- Chicago Tribune
