Why Are These Fish Walking?

Get the Season Zero pin set here: store.dftba.com/products/seas...
Welcome back to the second episode of our new format for Bizarre Beasts, which we're calling Season Zero. Over the next year, we will be remastering episodes of Bizarre Beasts that were originally created for Vlogbrothers.
Revisit the Red Handfish with us as we (once again) confront the question, why is this fish walking?
A special thanks to the Handfish Conservation Project / Rick Stuart-Smith, for so much wonderful Handfish footage. If you'd like to learn more about the Handfish Conservation Project, you can visit their website here: handfish.org.au/
Follow us on socials:
Twitter: / bizarrebeasts
Instagram: www/ bizarrebeastsshow
Facebook: / bizarrebeastsshow
#BizarreBeasts #Anglerfish #RedHandfish
Host: Hank Green (he/him)
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Sources:
www.environment.gov.au/biodiv...
news.mongabay.com/2011/07/for...
theconversation.com/australia...
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...
blog.csiro.au/love-is-in-the-...
handfish.org.au/species-overv...
www.imas.utas.edu.au/news/new...
www.guinnessworldrecords.com/...
nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Red%...
www.ogsociety.org/journal/fea...
nc.iucnredlist.org/redlist/co...
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
www.iucnredlist.org/
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Images:
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• Caring for the rarest ...
• Caring for the rarest ...
• 15 Hours in Target!
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/p...

[@fivecatsinatrenchcoat7437]

They're rare because they keep getting caught red handed.

[@MrJdsenior]

Ugh, groan

[@sarahchristine2345]

Ba dum dum, tiss 🥁😂

[@hicknopunk]

It walks to confound scientists and nothing more than that and getting social media views.

[@jakeshapiro389]

damn even fish chasing clout these days, smh

[@UrsulaSeymour]

The babies immediately sinking to the bottom really got me 😂

[@osmia]

As a gardener when you talked about the babies just falling to the ground my very first thought was to pair them with corn

[@user-xj8wy4uu1q]

??

[@arnaldorentes5371]

Hank, it's a real pleasure to see you in such great shape. Congratulations!

[@jansenart0]

I'm betting they walk because that negates the need for a swim bladder. Similar energy as swimming, given where they are in the sea, just as much food, but they save a lot of biological resources by eliminating their swim bladders; not just the organ itself but the proteins coding for it and the blood vessels and nerves maintaining it.

[@brooklyna007]

A swim bladder doesn't seem that energy intensive. It is a *relatively* simple and passive organ.

[@jansenart0]

@@brooklyna007 Even if it's only 5% total of a creature's anatomy, organ itself and the biological infrastructure to grow and maintain it (other animals have considerably larger ones by the way), then that means you get an extra creature's worth of material for every 20 you make. Not just the energy to keep it, but the biological energy, the carbon credits if you like, to have it part of the production in the first place.

[@krembryle7903]

I also had the realization once, that fish are "flying in the water". I thought I was smart.

[@williamjohnson5022]

You were smart, just not uniquely so.

[@BlanBonco]

Family Feud did a catergory on that

[@IceNixie0102]

You should send Mola Mola pins to everyone (like my husband) who already has season 0 pins. Let us complete the set without having to buy them all again!

[@MyVanHaven]

Is it weird that my first thought was of Lord Byron? "She walks in beauty like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies, and all that's best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and in her eyes."

[@chaeburger]

A recommendation for a Bizarre Beast is the Devil's Hole Pupfish. They're also in the running for rarest fish in the world. They're very weird!

[@NewMessage]

Best fish vid you'll see today, hands down.

[@eric2500]

Oh NO! Save the Handfish! Keep Australia weird!

[@jaimis5377]

i was dying for an update on the smooth handfish. thanks hank and crew

[@germanomagnone]

for me the epaulette shark is adorable, who knows it together with the mudskipper, could be the prototype of a new lineage of land animals.

[@bbastronaut4025]

If fish are flying, then humans are their aliens

[@tunkiyo]

THANK YOU!!! So many documenting "professionals" claim they can't swim yet they just cut off the portal of the film that shows them swimming. Thank you for actually stating they do swim just not well.

[@laurachapple6795]

I got my pin set today! The Mola Mola is my favourite but I love the iridescent effect on the Portuguese Man O'War.

[@user-xz4eq2ci6h]

I like man'o war and Mola Mola are so weird

[@rickybryan1759]

The rarest fish on earth - THAT WE KNOW OF

[@bubblybull2463]

Sink or swim? Ok, I‘ll sink!

[@98Zai]

I love you red hand fish! I'm really glad someone cares for them

[@julius333333]

I love Hank Green

[@DoctorX17]

I still love this format of double Hank so much

[@edfranklin2]

Maybe they got tired of swimming. I do.

[@anju2592]

Sticking your face under a hand dryer is actually so gross after learning how much bacteria is in those things

[@hgtate9601]

Gotta be one of my favorite fish. Love telling people about the hand fish

[@RKKY-mf7fe]

Would be cool if these fish are the ancestors of the second wave of tetrapods.

[@ThatJaymsWisdom]

God do I love these videos. They are so wonderful! I also wonder if there is any way to get just a selection of the old pins (and the new mola-mola/Sunfish)? I have most of the original set bit I'm short just a few.

[@Coral_skies]

Aww dang! I really wanted to get the Season Zero pin set, but $120 is WAAAY too steep for some pins. And the Mola Mola one is adorable too!

[@kyrab7914]

I mean... $10 a pin is p reasonable. Like it takes someone time to make and package those. $10 an hour is kinda crappy tbh

[@mayaenglish5424]

Yeah it's actually cheaper than the pin club, our stupid monkey brains are just better at justifying smaller amounts spreadout over a longer period of time than one lump sum even if the result is the same (or better) lol.

[@knightshade6232]

See that bird ... They were once fish

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Why? Because it can! LOL! They really are fascinating critters, for sure. And I'm happy to see Hank looking so fit and happy again, too. So thanks, BB, on both counts!

[@sutr8512]

when you were listing walking fish, i was hoping you'd mention the cave angel fish, one of my favourite animals and, it occurs to me, a potential bizarre beast candidate?

[@adamgreenspan4988]

If they’re in the angler fish family, then they must be related to the red-lipped batfish, which Animalogic just covered. Those are also walking fish that can barely swim, but they are contenders for “ugliest fish”. And they have beards.

[@woodchipgardens9084]

He forgot frogs and salamanders.

[@scraperindustry]

I really want the next Bizarre Beasts yo feature ruffs and their three types of male birds

[@Judymontel]

Nearly missed this one as I was scrolling through my subs catching up because the ones I've seen have a red bar across the top. Took me a while to realize that the thumbnail for this video didn't have a red bar across the bottom, but a red FRAME around the whole thing... phew!! Now to enjoy the vid... 😁

[@thewatcher8773]

These fish are walking because…. “It’s a trap!”

[@sciencenerd7639]

great video, thanks

[@BlanBonco]

Well with your air analogy they don't swim like we dont fly 😂

[@SewlockHolmes]

Love the updates! Does this make us the handfish of the land?

[@mariannetfinches]

"almost" upsettingly? ALMOST???

[@pneumonoultramicroscopicsi6915]

This is where you get fish fingers😂😂

[@user-sn2oq4qt7b]

Its good to see hanks again😅

[@kierianiis]

I really wish you could buy the season 0 pins individually!

[@zenn9836]

"Data Deficient" is the excuse kids make about Megalodon.

[@trout512]

Well, swimming does make you an obvious target, so it makes sense to avoid swimming if you and your food live on the ocean floor. But the ability to evade predators by swimming, even for short bursts, should be enough to keep swimming around. The only thing I can thing is that there's diseases in fish that can mess with swim bladders, right? I know that's a thing in freshwater fish, but I'm not familiar enough with saltwater. But if there are diseases that cause saltwater fish to float or have buoyancy issues due to the swim bladder, that could be evolutionary pressure to lose the organ entirely. Fish that float when sick would be easy targets for predators. The other thing to consider is that there might not be ongoing pressure to avoid swimming. Potentially one event/issue wiped out swimming handfish back when the species were just starting out. Evolution is a messy, wild, absurd process that doesn't lead to the perfect organism.

[@MrJdsenior]

Yers, both known unknowns and unknown unknowns.

[@Thanatos--]

Oh no. Bizarre Beasts has decided that to do 90 Day Fiancé - The Other Way: Pillow Talk recaps.

[@WESsential]

Bugs wings probably evolved from Gills, hank.

[@MatthewCampbell765]

They're walking because they're not in a hurry and don't need to run, silly.

[@ElOroDelTigre]

Hey Hank, you look great!

[@takenname8053]

Might have to rewatch season 0

[@bbbenj]

Beautiful creatures 🤞🤞🤞

[@secretaltruism4174]

The answer to handfish, why? is simple: Australia. I say this as an Aussie who lives in the population area of handfish

[@beepboop204]

[@Silly_Sulky_Seli]

oh I love them

[@1984Phalanx]

I wish I'd become a scientist.

[@ljphoenix4341]

A weird Australian fish, how unsurprising. Aussie is full of unusual animals, both in and out of water.

[@dunyacaliskan7495]

What? So the ICUN doesn't even classify Megalodon as extinct?

[@DJFracus]

I think the IUCN focuses on modern species. Prehistoric species technically don't have an IUCN status.

[@SnepperStepTV]

Oh i heard about that pokemon

[@Hawkpelt94]

If I could make a request or a suggestion to modify the bizarre beasts pin club subscription? I love to put my pins up on my pin board, but it can be difficult sometimes to remember which pin belongs to which card. Would it be possible to maybe add a little printed version of the pin image onto the pin cards? I know I at least would very much appreciate that

[@tuckerdidit42]

Genuine question: with all the edits and revisions, why don’t you just re-record the entire video rather than re-editing it? /Asking out of curiosity, not judgement

[@Alfonso162008]

I have no idea, but my guess is that they do all their research for a whole season of Bizarre Beasts in a certain time frame before recording all the episodes, but this year it all got disrupted by Hank's cancer diagnostic and treatment, so they probably had enough time to add some new or updated facts about animals they already covered, instead of presenting a completely new set of facts from a whole new batch of animals. Also, I guess it gave them the excuse to put that whole first season more in line with the rest of the show in terms of visual presentation, pin sets, etc.

[@tuckerdidit42]

@@Alfonso162008 ohh that’s a fair take. I didn’t realize Hank had health things going on, def makes sense they’d keep the rerecord time down to a minimum. Thx for the context:)

[@Alfonso162008]

@@tuckerdidit42 You're welcome 😊I always assume that people follow Hank or his brother on Vlogbrothers or their social media, that's why I didn't give much detail about his cancer.

[@ShabeRaven]

Will those of use who have been here since Season Zero and already got all the OG pins be able to get the mola mola?

[@theevolutionslayer1772]

Its still a fish 😂

[@kanders7391]

I love them♥️

[@theprecipiceofreason]

what is killing the handfish

[@snehapradhan5591]

❤

[@RaelNikolaidis]

I knew it was gonna be from Australia.

[@alexl.6187]

is the pin Banner coming back? we wanted the pin banner please?

[@annettegustafson1435]

Of course they are from Australia! All the world's most bizarre creatures live there!

[@lh3540]

They're so cute

[@PeaceLoveHonor]

What happened with the project to help the red handfish population since the first vid??

[@nicksamek12]

Okay these things are sooooo cute.

[@user-xz4eq2ci6h]

It's thought that a Tasmanian species of hand fish is extinct

[@nicksamek12]

But do fish exist?

[@holothuroid9111]

If they do, whales are fish and so are we.

[@littlesnowflakepunk855]

taxonomic categories are vague and weird. the word "fish" in common parlance just means "animal which lives primarily or wholly in water, or which follows a bilaterally symmetrical finned bodyplan." taxonomically its more specific but its kind of irrelevant

[@kellydalstok8900]

No Such Thing As a Fish is my favourite podcast.

[@lizardmilk]

More like this. I miss the straight up science from your channels.

[@purplecouch4767]

Would you rather come across handsy fish or fishy hands?

[@scottbubb2946]

That's kind of a broad definition, but, okay.

[@imthescrubjay]

Huh, 5:46 am post

[@MistSoalar]

Does anyone know if there's any bipedalism going among fishes?

[@rubenkoker1911]

Houting is too an extinct fish, hunted to exticntion by the dutch

[@hicknopunk]

"Air is a fluid" oh boy, here come the comments 😅

[@rebellion795]

If sharks are fish and ray finned fish are fish then TETRAPODS INCLUDING US ARE FISH!!! THEREFORE Walking is common among fish!!!

[@user-md7io4tk1r]

Jumping dimension is funny zero

[@bobzmuda3456]

is it extinct? not sure, havent looked hard enough. why doesnt it swim? see question 1

[@gregwasserman2635]

I thought this was on the rarest fish in the world, the Devil's Hole pupfish. Clickbait...

[@Styphon]

Still not as rare or bizarre as the Babelfish.

[@EarnestWilliamsGeofferic]

It's not as if you research or write any of this. You just read stuff that underpaid contractors create. You're not 'wrong' any more than you are ever 'right'.

[@TheQueenOfStupidity]

I love this fish! I have painted in in my collection of "stupid looking fish" sticker sheet project :D Im sad that its so close to extintion ):