Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his latest episode of ‘Mann ki Baat’, the popular radio programme mentioned about the recently found cave fish in a Meghalaya cave.
It is believed to be the largest cave fish in the world.
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A team of experts from the UK, Switzerland and India have discovered the world’s largest species of cave fish in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills recently.
Also read: World’s largest cave fish discovered in Meghalaya
The cave fish, similar in anatomy to an endangered mahseer species, is around one and a half feet in length and was found inside a remote cave in Jaintia Hills.
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Details of the fish have appeared in a paper written by four researchers in the November 2019 issue of Cave and Karst Science.
The fish has no eyes and is white due to lack of melanin pigmentation.
The fish may still be in the process of evolving to be a separate new species.
There are 250 known species of fish found under the earth’s surface.
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As they live in a nutrient-limited environment most of these species are small—195 of them have a mean length of 8.5 cm.
The only two species, which exceed 30 cm, are eel-like and have very thin bodies.
Researchers believe the fish is bulky in size due to large and regular food supply, with surface vegetation entering the cave through the entrance shaft on rainy seasons.