h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello, Coelacanth! I was in the zoo in Antwerp last weekend and I saw a model of a member of your species. I was amazed at how big you coelacanths are! I always thought of a small fish like a salmon or a trout. This one was huge. I took a photo, but I left my camera with the people I was staying with so it will be weeks before I get it back. I'll try and put the picture up on the web so that you can see it, eventually.

One other thing, you should "choose to be notified" of any new conversations on your personal space. That way, you would not have missed this one (if you did).

Hi there Gnomon! Thanks for dropping by. I don't actually subscribe because I don't see the need to have the same message notified in two places. I look every time I'm here (and in Goo it shows up easier) but as you can see, an icy wind whistles through my message centre and no one leaves me any, which is a shame. I got very excited to see yours.

A coelacanth in Antwerp! Just a model? There was a time when lots were being caught and sent to museums all over the world. Was this one the spectacular bright speckled blue they are in reality, (ie a model) or the rather dull brown they go after they die. The one in the Natural History Museum in London is brown, and a bit scraggy looking it's true, but I go and see it several times a year.

Yes, they really are huge! In fact the London one is quite small. They can get to be about 2 meters, and they swim like no other fish around. Their tail is unusual too. (One day I really will write the Guide entry I've been promising!) Check out the dinofish link from my page. There is a very good book about them too and a TV programme was shown.

Antwerp is the one place in Belguim I have wanted to go to, but never have. When I lived in Kent, a day trip was very easy. I've been to Brugges quite a few times, Ghent once and was just discovering Brussles after a couple of visits. I love Belgium.

Maybe this was in fact a preserved dead coelacanth, rather than the model I took it to be. It was a sort of dull brown. I couldn't read the signs as they were all in Flemish.

Antwerp itself is a big modern city (and an enormous port). There are one or two nice old houses, but it is not like Bruges. The Zoo has an interesting collection of cow-like animals (buffalo, okapi and so on). Due to lack of space, many of these have been moved to another zoo outside the town called Planckendael. The general style of the zoo seems to be much more "display of interesting animals for our amusement" than the more modern "preserving endangered species that we are busy wiping out" ethos that pervades Jersey and Dublin zoos.

Shame you can't read Flemish but it sounds like it might have been a preserved coelacanth. I suppose one way to tell would be how it was displayed. Was in in a tank of fluid? The one at the Natural History Museum in London is. It used to be suspended from strings but a friend of mine worked on retanking it a few years ago and now it is supported by rods from behind.

It's known as Specimen 14, the 14th caught since the discovery of the first one in modern times in 1938. The fishermen used to be offered payment for the capturing one. Any not needed for research were given away for exhibition purposes only, with the promise that they would never be dissected.

Specimen 21 was given to the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen. Specimen 26 was given to the America Museum of Natural History in New York, but I can't find any information about this on their web site. It's 1.8 mtrs long so I can't believe they just put it down somewhere and forgot where they left it!

Galaxy Babe told me she saw a skeleton in Kuwait and they are one of the countries that have put a coelacanth on a stamp.

Its not so easy for me to get to Belgium now, but I was told by someone on a train that Antwerp was worth a visit. The zoo sounds interesting. I tried to look at the website, but it's also in Flemish! My last visit to Belgium was to Brussles with a friend. We went a day trip just to look at the Art Nouveau houses all over the city. But we made sure we came back with some chocolate!

I've got my camera back!. I've put a photo of that coelacanth in Antwerp Zoo on the web. There's a link to it on My Space (the last of all the links). It looks like a model. My daughters are in the picture to give it scale.

Wow! What a lovely picture.
It's a model. They lose the speckles and the colour when they are captured. But what a wonderful display. Thank you!

I have the Channel 4 programme taped and its something I want to see again soon. It showed very rare footage of a swimming coelacanth. Sunshine and Moonlight (my 2 daughters) haven't seen this yet so perhaps we'll all watch it when we are on holiday from next week. We might go to Belgium for a day too, but it won't be the zoo. I've a feeling they will prefer shopping.