Chūgoku Critters: An Introduction (or: There’s Something Fishy About my School)
There are a lot of bugs in Japan. In the mountains, in the cities, in my apartment, really they’re everywhere.
A few months ago, I was walking along the boardwalk in Onomichi. I looked down and saw hundreds of jellyfish in the water. They were just…floating there. Jellyfish have always fascinated me (there’s a story about how I harassed a boy at the Baltimore Aquarium about jellyfish, but that’s a story for a different day).
As I kept walking closer to the water, I noticed bugs scuttling away under the rocks near the dock, crabs absolutely bolting the second you got close, and tiny fish swimming this way and that in the shallow water. I was just struck with the realization.
There are so many living things around us all the time.
Even when we think we are totally alone, the sounds of cicadas ring through the night. Birds wake up with us every morning. We even have whole ecosystems of bacteria in our own guts!
I was never someone who loved God’s smallest friends growing up. Sure, I loved nature and grew up near Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. But I was always scared of spiders and annoyed by ants. As an adult, I have learned more about the environment and how important each living thing is in it. For example, mosquitos — the most lethal insect on earth — are actually really diverse and important pollinators. What other living things have bad PR?
Nature, to me, is beautiful and complicated, nuanced in a way that most things are not. Most days, I find that I am constantly on my phone. I’m translating, navigating, listening to podcasts when I walk to work, talking to friends back home, or wasting time while deskwarming. I realized I needed to get off my phone.
So I started going for walks. I’ve noticed so many cute, cool, and creepy friends when I take some screen-free time to just be present. I don’t have to worry if the beetle I’m taking a picture of cheated on his wife (I’m talking about you, Ned).
I am not a scientist. I’m still learning how to learn about all of these things! And while I’m learning, I thought “why not create a space for everyone to be curious about the environment, even if that’s not their background?”.
This series is going to try to highlight some of the living things that we share space with in Japan. In addition to the cute animals, there will be features on insects, spiders, snakes, and the like. There will be a general warning regarding pictures and descriptions of these things — I understand that people have phobias. However, for those of you who don’t have those phobias I want you to try looking at these critters with an open mind.
I do have a bucket list of friends I want to meet (I need to see at least one Japanese giant salamander and I’m still not sure if tanukis are actually real or not), but it’s mostly going to be driven by what’s around me in a given season.
So as an introduction, I’m going to get a little sappy for sakana and tell you about a fish that might be hiding at your school!
Medaka
Other Names:
ミナミメダカ (Minamimedaka)
Minami Killifish
Japanese Rice Fish
Oryzias latipes
One of my supervisors has been taking care of some medaka since I arrived in Japan. She has created a great environment in a corner of the school and I often find myself walking there if I need a moment of peace.
So what better species to start off this series!
Medaka are so cool. These fish are small, usually around 3cm long, and appear silver or gold. Their lifespan in the wild is around two years, but they can live up to five years in captivity. Often, they have a translucent quality. It is said that they can glow in the dark. They are very common, you can buy a single medaka at the pet store for around ¥50 each, but rare colors and patterns of medaka can sell for up to ¥1,000,000 (or about $10,000 USD).
They’re found everywhere in Japan, as well as most other parts of central and east Asia. Normally they’re found in slow, still water with plants, like in calm streams, marshes, tide pools, or especially in rice paddies. They like to eat plankton and juvenile mosquitos so they’re viewed as a positive addition to their ecosystems. They are also one of the most popular aquarium fish in Japan.
Since they have incredibly short gestation and reproductive times, it is easy to track changes over generations which makes them remarkably useful for scientific research. In fact, medaka have even been sent to space to see how it affects their gene production. They hold the very official title of “first vertebrae to mate in space” which is a really nifty moniker. However, they do have a tendency to inbreed.
Controversy around the fish is usually about genetically modifying medaka because of the potential of modified fish to hybridize (read: mate, get it on, bone) with local communities — the “GMO” fish tend to be more virile than their “organic” counterparts and can breed at an alarming rate. This can change the entire genetic makeup of communities of medaka.
The fact I like best of all is that medaka can actually remember and recognize the faces of other medaka. Like!?!? Because these little guys naturally live in groups, they have developed the ability to keep track of their community. How cool is that!
Schools often keep medaka because they are hearty and can withstand a wide range of temperatures (3–42 °C 37–108 °F) and are helpful when teaching young children about responsibility and caring for animals.
As you can see, they’re pretty neat fish! Now go forth and search your schools to see if you have a medaka pond on campus. If you do, share a pic with us on the Wide Island View insta!
And a rule for anything I post: if you have a regional name or fun facts about something I post, let me know down in the comments.
Let’s all keep being curious and I’ll see you next time!
