🐟 AquaticCare difficulty: AdvancedLegal complexity: High — restricted in many states
West Indian Ocean coelacanth
Latimeria chalumnae
The coelacanth is a 'living fossil' fish once thought extinct for millions of years until a living specimen was caught in 1938. Critically endangered, it inhabits deep ocean caves and is of immense scientific interest as a relative of the ancestors of land vertebrates.
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Quick facts
| Size | Large deep-sea fish to ~2 m and ~90 kg, with lobed fins. |
| Lifespan | 60–100 years |
| Native region | Deep waters of the western Indian Ocean (Comoros and nearby) |
| Climate | 🍂 Temperate |
| Water type | 🌊 Marine |
| Genus | Latimeria |
Habitat & enclosure
Lives in deep, cool waters along steep volcanic slopes, sheltering by day in submarine caves. Accidental capture in deep-set fishing gear is the main threat to this rare, slow-reproducing fish. It is strictly protected and CITES-listed; this profile is conservation/education only and it cannot be kept.
Diet
A nocturnal predator drifting near the bottom to ambush fish and cephalopods. Its lobed, limb-like fins move in an alternating pattern reminiscent of a four-legged walk, a clue to vertebrate evolution.
Behavior & temperament
It gives birth to live young after a very long gestation and grows extremely slowly, so populations recover poorly from losses. Its 1938 rediscovery off South Africa is one of the most celebrated events in zoology, and a second species was later found in Indonesia.
Reviewed and signed off by: KinStation Editorial — conservation profile (pending DVM/biologist review)