Outline:
Photographs circulating via email and online claim to depict a fish with hands and legs.
Status:
Genuine photographs but description is inaccurate.
Subject: Fish with hands and legs..
Check this out…a fish with hands and legs??? WTF!!
Detailed Analysis:
These and similar photographs circulate via email and are often posted to blogs and online forums for discussion. The intriguing little creature depicted in the photographs is commonly misidentified as a “legged fish” or a “fish with legs and hands”. Some postulate that the images are actually fakes created in an image manipulation program.
In fact, the photographs are genuine, although they do not depict a fish. This creature is an Axolotl or “Mexican Walking Fish”. The Axolotl is an amphibian, more specifically, a salamander. Although they are native to Mexico, Axolotls have become popular as exotic pets around the world. In captivity, they are housed in an aquarium and can have a range of colours.
Like some other kinds of amphibians, the Axolotl generally remains permanently in its larval form. According to axolotl.org:
Ordinarily, amphibians undergo metamorphosis from egg to larva (the tadpole in frogs is a larva), and finally to adult form. The Axolotl, along with a number of other amphibians, remains in its larval form throughout its life. This means that it retains its gills and fins, and it doesn’t develop the protruding eyes, eyelids and characteristics of other adult salamanders.
Although there is no mystery or manipulation involved, these photographs certainly depict a fascinating little animal.
Last updated: 29th November 2009
First published: 25th September 2006
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Axolotls: The Fascinating Mexican Axolotl and the Tiger Salamander
Pet Facts: Axolotl
Axolotls
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
