Fish Out of Water
by | Brad Bromling D.Min. |
Believe it or not, there are fish which will drown if they are held under the water! They are known as lungfish. One kind of lungfish lives in Africa. He grows to be about four feet long and looks like an eel. Like other fish he has gills, but he does not depend on them for his main means of breathing. Instead, unlike most fish, he has a "lung" which he uses for breathing.
The lungfish lives in the shallow water of marshes and eats small fish and frogs. Interestingly, when the weather gets hot and the water in which he lives begins to dry up, he burrows down into the mud. In his tunnel, the lungfish secretes (gives off) a slime which mixes with mud and acts as a kind of cocoon. He will stay in his "cocoon" until the rains come and moisten the marsh again. This process is called estivation (eh-steh-VA-shun). Lungfish do not eat while evistating; they live off the energy stored in their bodies from the food they ate when the marsh was still wet.
Like the amazing lungfish, all of God's creatures have been designed to fit into their place in the world.