Speaking of scavengers, many people hate to itch their teeth, this ugly foreign fish has been flooded in the waters of southern China, many anglers fish all day long to bite the hook is all this fish, and the name of this fish sounds uncomfortable, coupled with the strange appearance and the inherent impression in the public's mind, making this fish rarely served on the table. Now there are already people on the Internet trying to cook scavengers, and it is said that the meat is delicate, but it is impossible to encourage the majority of foodies to eat this fish. Today we will talk about the scavenger, and by the way, learn about its strange relatives in his hometown.
<h1>Scavenger breeds</h1>
Scavenger is just a common name, because most people buy it to clean up the garbage in the fish tank, which is the main reason why it came to China, a few varieties of scavengers are colorful and have high ornamental value. The scavenger's scientific name is catfish, and the trade name is alien fish. The common scavenger is called the King Xenotype, the cheapest one, and other varieties have their own numbers.
Like the Panda Alien, numbered L98 and L173, each body surface has a unique black and white stripe. King Labyrinth Xenotype - L66, the off-white body is covered with irregularly shaped black markings. Gold Dharma Xenotype-L014, short and thick body, body color changeable, from pure black to full body orange. New varieties are constantly being discovered, and Chinese of the current variants are numbered L387.
<h1>The dangers of scavengers</h1>
Originally from South America, scavengers were only officially named in 1855, and in the following more than a hundred years, scavengers were brought around the world, and a large number of individuals escaped from the breeding environment, entered wild waters, and gradually flooded in suitable conditions, and the main invading countries are Mexico, Guatemala, the United States, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Japan and China. It only entered china in the 1980s, and in just a few decades, most of the south has been flooded. There are three main dangers to scavengers.
First, seize resources and mutilate native fish
The scavenger attaches to the manatee
Adult scavengers eat a huge amount of food, the big mouth is like a vacuum cleaner, can scrape the algae on the stone clean, will also swallow fish eggs and fry, in the fish breeding season, a day can eat 3000-5000 fish eggs, the harm to native fish is extremely harmful, in the United States Florida and Puerto Rico lakes, scavengers have made dozens of native fish endangered.
Second, the skin is thick and thick, and there is a lack of natural enemies, endangering fisheries and other species
The shell and fins of the scavenger are very hard, often scrape the net, and are not easily preyed upon by other animals, such as cormorants, pelicans, egrets and other scavengers when swallowing scavengers, it is easy to be stuck and unable to eat and starve to death.
Third, the digging of holes damages the embankment
Scavengers burrow during the breeding season, reducing the reservoir's ability to resist and discharge floods, and the U.S. Geological Exploration says that in the scavenger-flooded rivers, the banks of the river are eroded about 4 meters a year.
<h1>Relatives of the scavenger's hometown</h1>
Compared with the scavenger's wreaking havoc around the world, its relatives in the hometown are much more well-behaved, this relative is the wood catfish, a newly discovered species in the Amazon River in 2010, it is larger than the scavenger, can grow up to 80 cm long, and feeds on the saprophyll that is poured in the water.
Biologists originally thought that the catfish had special bacteria in their bodies to digest wood, but after further study, they found that they only chewed on the wood to obtain algae, plants, small animals and detritus, and they could not digest the wood, but excreted the wood they ate. Their teeth are basically similar to those of scavengers, so why don't they eat more delicious fish eggs and fry like scavengers?
A fortune cat native to Amazon
This is because they live at the bottom of the river, which is full of mud and rotting wood, and in order not to compete with other predators, the fish gradually developed the habit of nibbling on wood. There are more than 700 species of catfish in the Amazon, most of which are predatory or scraping fish, and very few actually feed on wood.
(The above picture is from the network)