Random Fact Index

[Lynden]

Please, dig deep inside your brains and add to the Random Fact Index!
Also, if any of my facts are wrong, please tell me about it, by personal message. My goal is to form the most comprehensive random fact basis as can possibly be formed for free! If adding a fact(s), please disable your signature and emoticons.


And so it begins...


Fact #1: Chelericates, such as Horseshoe Crabs, have copper-based blood, instead of hemoglobin. When injured, they bleed blue blood.

Fact #2: Loaches, because of their encased swimbladders, are very effective predictors of low-pressure weather systems such as rain.

Fact #3: Feather Duster Worms have incredibly sophisticated central nervous systems. They can move each one of their dozens of tentacles independently.

Fact #4: Carribean Reef Squid are the most intelligent of all invertebrates. The only thing they lack in order to become civilized is culture (the ability to pass learned skills to future generations).

Fact #5: Fish are by far the most diverse of all classes of vertebrates. They were the first vertebrates (other than lampreys and hagfish) to evolve, and so can be found in every niche of underwater life.

 

[Bullrock74]

Fact #6: Sharks are nearly immune to cancer.

Fact #7: Spider silk is the strongest fiber known to man, right? Not necessarily, what about fibers found in hagfish mucus? "These fibers are thought to rival spider silk in strength, and have a simpler protein structure so might be easier to mimic." - ThinkCycle.org

 

[Bignose]

This has the potential to be a fun thread, but these 'facts' need more proof/substance.

For example, Re: Fact #2, how effective? Better than our models? Better than looking out the window?

Re: Fact #4, how was this intelligence measured? Do you have a reference?

And finally, 'Fact' #6 is completely bogus:
http/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/703082.stm
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark

how about we replace it with:

Actual Fact #6: The Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa in nature exists only as females. They participate in mating actions with males of several other molly species, but do not take in sperm, and hence do not incorporate any genetic material from a male. The actions do generate viable eggs that develop without fertilization (a process called gynogenesis), but the result is a species whose fry are all clones of the mother.

 

[Scott MacAdam]

For example, Re: Fact #2, how effective? Better than our models? Better than looking out the window?

o wow! i had a Dojo who did laps around my tank for 4 hours straight..... later that day..... tropical storm..... rained like crazy! as soon as it was over he just want back to ordinary every day tank life! truly amasing fish!

Fact 8: It’s believed there may be 28,000 different fish species, that is alot more then Mamals and Birds

Fact 9:The climbing perch, an amazing fish, native to India, can walk on land in search of water when its water hole dries up.

Fact 10:The world's largest lake trout was caught on the Saskatchewan end of Lake Athabasca, Canada, and weighed in at 102 pounds.

WOW that's a HUGE trout......


Fact 11: In 1986, an American ichthyologist recorded the Burmese cyprinid Danionella translucida as the smallest freshwater fish, females being mature at only 10 to 1 lmm in standard length.

Prior to this, the smallest freshwater fish was the goby Pandaka pygmaea from the Philippines which can grow a few millimetres larger and is much stouter.

 

[Lynden]

For example, Re: Fact #2, how effective? Better than our models? Better than looking out the window?

Better than looking out the window; Weather Loaches react to low pressure before rain or dark clouds are visible, not only were they once used in Europe as barometers, but I observed mine doing it the other day too

Re: Fact #4, how was this intelligence measured? Do you have a reference?

I'm actually quoting a prominent Japanese physicist on this one; embarrasingly, the man's name escapes me now!

Fact #12: The Livebearing Barb does not bear live young; rather, when first discovered, a specimen was dissected, and small fish were found in it's stomach. The biologists thought he was pregnant!

Fact #13: Contrary to popular belief, Loaches are not cyprinids; though both the former and latter exist under the taxinomic class Cyprinoformes, Loaches exist in the families Cobitidae and Balitoridae, while Cyprinids are all in the family Cyprinidae. Calling a Loach a Cyprinid is like calling a Clownfish a Perch.

Fact #14: Piranhas are still viewed as the world's most ferocious fish, even though they run scared from nearly everything larger than them unless they are starving and in shallow pools with hundreds of their own kind.

Fact #15: Mantis Shrimp are able to produce, with a flick of their chelae, a mighty punch equal to that of a .22 caliber bullet. They are overarmed, with superb vision, great intellect, and infrared emmiting patches used to identify their own kind.

Fact #16: There are two kinds of crustaceans commonly known as Pistol Shrimp. The more well-known ones are blind, colourful little hermits who wouldn't hurt a fly. However, their is a more predatory type who, instead of gently blowing water, blasts concentrated sound waves, by rapidly superheating air in a bubble, fitting it's name a little better and killing fish and shrimp as far a six feet away!

Fact #17: Puffer fish are ridiculously overarmed. They possess teeth able to crunch even some kinds of metal; they show a greater level of intelligence than many other fish; are able to inflate their bodies, sometimes revealing sharp spines, to avoid being swallowed; and if all this wasn't enough, their organs contain a deadly poison called tetraodioxin. But that doesn't sop them from being eaten as a delicacy called fugu in Japan.

Let's see if we can get to one hundred!

 

[Bignose]

Fact 11 isn't quite a fact either, it is up for debate which is the smallest fish, especially with the discovery of a new contender for the title earlier this year:

http/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4666736.stm

 

[jayjay]

scared from nearly everything larger than them

Not true if it's dead.

Fact #15: Mantis Shrimp are able to produce, with a flick of their chelae, a mighty punch equal to that of a .22 caliber bullet. They are overarmed, with superb vision, great intellect, and infrared emmiting patches used to identify their own kind.

Some do not all.

 

[Lynden]

Not true if it's dead.

I think you knew that I meant alive,

Some do not all.

Who cares? Some do, too.

Come on, guys (Bignose and JayJay) ! Quit trying to rain on my parade!
And if your going to knock other people's facts, at least post some of your own.

Fact #18: The Driftwood Gulper Catfish is one of a few fishes that employs a devious hunting technique; closing it's jaws on the heads of large fishes (sometimes close to their own length) and letting the fish swim into it's stomach. It is very effective as it is a reflex for many fishes to have a burst of speed when bitten.

Thank you to those that have replied to this topic.

 

[Bignose]

Chestnut, I'm not trying to rain on your parade, I just thought that rather than spread untruths about, that you would have wanted your facts, to have been, well, actual facts.

So, basically, if I see something that I know is wrong, I'm gonna call it out.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

im actually happy that they are correcting the facts that are wrong. if the title says facts, im expecting facts.

 

[burtos]

FACT #19 Cod is really good with Chips and a splash of vinegar and a sprinkle of salt.

 

[raptorrex]

fact#19 not true, i dont like vinegar, just thought i'd stay on theme lol

 

[cs091]

FACT 20 62% of statistics are made up. including this one

 

[Lynden]

Chestnut, I'm not trying to rain on your parade, I just thought that rather than spread untruths about, that you would have wanted your facts, to have been, well, actual facts.

So, basically, if I see something that I know is wrong, I'm gonna call it out.

im actually happy that they are correcting the facts that are wrong. if the title says facts, im expecting facts.

Understood, and good points.

But in the topic's first post, it says

Also, if any of my facts are wrong, please tell me about it, by personal message.

But if you must put the corrections on the actual thread, I'm expecting that you also contribute to the thread itself, by posting facts. Is that so much to ask?

OK, in a desperate attempt to keep this thread alive:

Fact #21: Bar Goby, as listed in my stocking list, is not a goby at all. It is in fact a Dartfish, Ptereleotris zebra. Many fishes are arbitrarily called gobies, mostly other Dartfish, Dragonets, and a few Blennies. As to why they would do this, I have no idea. Some of them even have complete names to which the word "goby" was added on, such as Firefish Goby or Green Mandarinfish Goby. It only seems to add confusion, as I have ordered difficult fish in the past, thinking they were easy-to-keep gobies or blennies!

Fact #22: The ancient Egyptians are usually accredited with being the first people to keep aquarium fishes. Anthropologic evidence shows that they kept large fish in ponds for food, and smaller species in their homes to impress their friends.

 

[Bignose]

And, mea culpa, I didn't notice about corrections via PM, but I was hoping that the posters of the disputed or just plain wrong facts would come back and see where the disagreement was. I would hope that anyone would do the same for anything I post.


Fact #23 Eels that oscillate their entire body for locomotion have to pass waves through their body at 5/4 the speed they want to travel.