Meet A Fish Every Day

String identified: g tg t tc a tg t tc a a t ac aga!

Closest match: Scleropages formosus genome assembly, chromosome: 12 Common name: Asian arowana

Asian arowana!

on my etsy store now!

my sticker aquarium now includes the red asian arowana, brown bullhead, coelacanth, largemouth bass, lake sturgeon, & zombified sockeye salmon!

want all of them for a discounted price? you can get either all of these new guys + two older fish designs (rainbow trout and sauger) in a bundle or just the freshwater fishies in a bundle! don't miss this big catch!!!¡!🐟

You get a Silver Arowana

Asian Arowanas racing each other in their tank in River Wonders. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

[ID: a digital llustration of a silver Arowana fish facing to the right, on an orange background with a silver crescent moon above it. End.]

Planet Earth 3: Ocean

Ah the ocean episode, the one I looked forward to the most. Did it live up to my expectations? Absolutely I'm an easily pleased person.

Again spoiler for the episode sorta???

The primary purpose of a nature documentary is to introduce the audience to wildlife and natural world they're unfamiliar with, and this episode gave us flying fish laying eggs, orcas hunting mobula rays, pearl octopus nursery and moments that only bbc can manage to capture(honestly how are they doing this???) The efforts and techniques of the film crew must be recognised here, many of the segments of this episode take place in open ocean, and are about behaviors that only last for perhaps a couple of minutes. The ocean episode brings us wonder and spectacles(and also reminded me a lot of blue planet 2 so I guess this review has a heavy nostalgia bias).

But besides the wonderment, what else did the episode give the audience? Perhaps hope so the audience can build a connection to these wilderness? Compared to the coast episode, this one is relatively weak in this part, humans for the most part are present as the polluters and exploiters of the ocean. Which makes it hard not to leave with a sense of misanthropy.

Another critique, this one more of a nick-pick. Reusing shots is common and very much acceptable in nature documentaries, but there are a couple of reused shots from other documentaries in this episode that last too long and don't connect very well.

But all in all, this is still amazing I love every second of it.

The Sea and its Wonders. Written by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby. 1871.