Fish of the Week!

The scene is set: two neighbors with very different ways of living. One is large, long-lived, free-to-roam, blimp-like. The other: small, shorter-lived, confined, butter-like. These are the people's fish, occupying international waters and places on earth that are quite impossible for us to truly experience from the perspectives of these amazingly adapted, beautiful fish. Get to know the "albatross" of the abyssal plain, the unfortunately (or fortunately?) named Robust Assfish, AND the Atacama Trench Snailfishes in our first ever compare and contrast episode.
Our guest, Dr. Thom Linley, is Curator of Fishes at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and co-host of The Deep-Sea Podcast.
Other episodes you might like:
S3:E25 - Mariana Snailfish: Trench Fish Extraordinaire
S4:E13 - The Unassuming Bony-eared Assfish!

Read more:
Fishes of the hadal zone including new species, in situ observations and depth records of Liparidae: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063716300656
Independent radiation of snailfishes into the hadal zone confirmed by Paraliparis selti sp. nov. (Perciformes: Liparidae) from the Atacama Trench, SE Pacific: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12526-022-01294-0.pdf

Get to know the Gilt Darter complex! Katrina and Guy are joined by two guests from Yale University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: Tom Near and Julia Wood. They imagine sitting down with the five species (Gilt, Masquerade, Brassy, Western Gilt, and Russet Darters) over dinner to understand the identity of each fish and how they're doing, dig into what makes a species a species, the definition of a species complex, and how the advancement of biodiversity discovery is important to conservation.

This week we're heading to New England to get to know its very large, blobby, thick-tailed electric ray that's super cool but not well-understood. In this episode, we get a peek into the torpedo ray's personality and deep dive into the how-tos and value of rescuing and necropsying stranded fish. Guy ponders if anyone has used uterine "milk" to make a cheese and Katrina wonders about historical accounts of these fish curing migraines and gout. Our guest is Carol "Krill" Carson from the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance.

Prized for their blue spot and legendary as bait for big snook and other sportfish, the frowny-faced Fat Sleeper is valued wherever it is: judging you from your aquarium, breathing air from the top of its head while trying to avoid becoming candy for herons, predicting storms, or unlocking nutrients from mangroves to benefit the entire food chain. You'll learn how this fish is the ultimate survivor, where it lives, and all about its weird "storm minnow parade" and sticky eggs. Guest Eddie Perry joins from our Peninsular Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office to build appreciation for this wonderful fish.
If you liked this episode, you might also like "Florida's Remarkable Opossum Pipefish" (S5:E14)

In waters that are "just right" across America, you can find colorful, unfamiliar fish living on the edge. Embark on a weird treasure hunt with Katrina, Guy, and guest Matt Miller from The Nature Conservancy to learn about Central American Convict Cichlids in Idaho to feral fancy guppies in George Washington's Bathtub and Jack Dempsey Cichlids in South Dakota. We explore American's bizarre relationship with certain fish, as well as tips for travel to and fishing hot springs. Unfortunately, this isn't a fairy tale: we also learn how introducing unwanted aquarium pets into hot springs puts our own unique native fish at risk.