{"id":866,"date":"2026-05-04T15:29:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/aquatic-everest-tiny-fish-scale-a-15-meter-waterfall\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:29:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:29:44","slug":"aquatic-everest-tiny-fish-scale-a-15-meter-waterfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/aquatic-everest-tiny-fish-scale-a-15-meter-waterfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquatic Everest: Tiny Fish Scale a 15-Meter Waterfall"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, researchers documented a climb that was as spectacular as it was unusual. Thousands of fish, only a few centimeters in length, were seen crawling up a waterfall more than ten meters high.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Luvilombo Falls Climb<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The species in question, <em>Parakneria thysi<\/em>, was spotted mid-ascent near the Luvilombo Falls. Measuring between 3.7 and 4.8 centimeters in length, its individuals undertake this vertigo-inducing ascent at the end of the rainy season. Between 2018 and 2020, it was documented on four occasions, lending corroboration to local testimonies, who nickname this fish <strong>kalumba<\/strong>, itself derived from the Sanga term <em>kulumba<\/em>, meaning to cling.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">The world&#8217;s highest-ranking animal is a royal penguin serving in the Norwegian army<\/span><\/section>\n<p>These are not the only finned creatures to challenge waterfalls. Yet, unlike bumblebee catfishes, which rely on suction (or the \u201csuction cup\u201d effect) to conquer such feats, <em>P. thysi<\/em> uses the tiny hooks that line its pelvic and pectoral fins to aid its ascent.<\/p>\n<p>To scale this 15-meter-tall wall of water, the fish spent roughly 9 hours and 45 minutes, with only about 15 minutes of actual climbing. The longer pauses occurred on horizontal ledges, allowing the fish to recover effectively.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cssc-content-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Watch Tiny Little Fish Shimmy Up A Waterfall In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/t9eQwJuwGgI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The End of the Rainy Season<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The peak of migration occurs in mid-April, and the climbing largely ends in early May. While some small groups have attempted the \u201csummit\u201d at dawn, <em>P. thysi<\/em> seems to favor a time window between about 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., aligning with sunset.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Biological anomaly intrigues scientists nearly 10 kilometers beneath the ocean: an animal that science cannot yet classify<\/span><\/section>\n<p>According to the authors of the new study, published in the journal <em>Scientific Reports<\/em>, during this time of year the watercourses begin to fall, thereby reducing the risk that the current will sweep the fish downstream.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists suspect they undertake this migration to reach areas where food is more abundant, and to escape the silver catfish (<em>Schilbe intermedius<\/em>), one of their main predators. Human activities constitute another major threat to the species, notably illegal fishing with mosquito nets and the irrigation of agricultural lands.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, South African researchers had surprised catfish on a nocturnal journey across land.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Long before the dinosaurs, a one-meter-long animal lived with a mouth described as a rasping saw beneath the water in Gondwana<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1138,1136,1137,98,1118,854,1139],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-15meter","tag-aquatic","tag-everest","tag-fish","tag-scale","tag-tiny","tag-waterfall","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions\/868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}