[Lee Stewart]

Highly prized as a food fish throughout Asia, where they often inhabit the same brackish, poorly oxygenated waters as snakeheads, the climbing perch is a fish that can walk on land for several hundred meters. The fish’s name derives from its rumored ability to climb trees—a legend for sure. It can remain out of water for six to 10 hours by using a maze-like breathing organ called a labyrinth to extract oxygen from the air, and it has been known to survive even longer by burying itself in mud to stay moist. In Australia, where climbing perch are thought to have been introduced by fishing boats, the fish are considered an invasive species. Surprisingly, that classification is due to their status as prey, not predator. The 10-inch perch’s ability to flex their spiny fins when swallowed has led to the choking deaths of native Australian birds.