The "fish of death" generally refers to the oarfish, nicknamed the "doomsday fish" in Japanese folklore (as ryūgū no tsukai, or "messenger from the sea god's palace") because its rare appearance in shallow water is traditionally believed to be a harbinger of earthquakes and tsunamis.
A fish kill is the sudden and unexpected death of a number of finfish or other aquatic animals such as crabs, prawns, mussels or oysters over a short period of time and often within a particular area in the wild.
According to an old Japanese belief, oarfish is referred to as the doomsday fish because its appearance near the surface is thought to be a warning of impending natural disasters. In some cases, people have reported seeing oarfish washing ashore before major earthquakes, especially in Japan.
Fish as a Funeral Offering: In some ancient cultures, fish were offered as sacrifices during funeral rites, symbolizing regeneration and the passage from life to death. The fish's connection to water, the source of life, made it a fitting offering for the journey to the afterlife.
What Fish Feel When They Are Killed for Food | NowThis
What symbolizes the death of a loved one?
Various images are used traditionally to symbolize death; these rank from blunt depictions of cadavers and their parts to more allusive suggestions that time is fleeting and all men are mortals. The human skull is an obvious and frequent symbol of death, found in many cultures and religious traditions.
Methuselah (captured 1938; born as early as 1922) is an Australian lungfish residing at the Steinhart Aquarium. She is known for being the oldest living fish in captivity as of 2023.
Dreaming of many fish is usually a symbol of wealth, luck and good fortune. Seeing many fish swimming in a dream can indicate that there are numerous opportunities and possibilities in your life. This type of dream suggests that many doors are opening for you!
So, while most sharks will be 100% fine if they stop swimming, a few iconic species such as great white sharks, whale sharks, hammerheads and mako sharks would suffocate without forward motion or a strong current flowing towards their mouths.
The swimbladder is an air-filled organ inside the fish that they use to regulate their position in the water. If the swimbladder stops working properly fish lose control of their buoyancy and may sit on the bottom, not able to swim up, or more commonly, float upside down at the surface.
Koi are beautiful and long-lived fish, living up to and past 100 years in optimal conditions. In domestic ponds, they typically live around 15 to 30 years. Japanese koi often live 40 years or longer. The oldest koi fish on record was around 200 years old! Contact us today about maintaining your backyard fish pond.
A 500 lb bluefin tuna's worth varies wildly, from potentially thousands for a regular catch to over $3 million at Tokyo's New Year's auctions, where a 535 lb fish sold for a record $3.2 million in 2026, demonstrating extreme market hype for quality fish used in premium sushi. For fishermen, the price is much lower, often a few dollars per pound, but the top auction prices reflect quality, prestige, and demand for high-grade tuna (like otoro), not typical retail value, notes a Quora post.
The tubeworm Escarpia laminata that lives in deep sea cold seeps regularly reaches the age of between 100 and 200 years, with some individuals determined to be more than 300 years old. Some may live for over 1,000 years.
Whether it be their genetics or due to the cold conditions they live in and more, there are a lot of species that live for decades, if not longer. One species known for its long lifespan is the rougheye rockfish, a deep-sea fish which can live for over 200 years.
The Sign Eviota, Eviota sigillata, a tiny coral reef fish, completes its entire life cycle within an eight week period. This species has the shortest lifespan of any vertebrate. In their 2005 paper Martial Depczynski and David Bellwood describe the Sign Eviota's remarkable life cycle.
The brain and nerve cells require a constant supply of oxygen and will die within a few minutes, once you stop breathing. The next to go will be the heart, followed by the liver, then the kidneys and pancreas, which can last for about an hour. Skin, tendons, heart valves and corneas will still be alive after a day.
