Methuselah, a nearly 4-foot-long, 40-pound Australian lungfish is the oldest living aquarium fish in the world, at an estimated 90 years.
In 1938, Methuselah was transported from Australia to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. That is where she has lived out the past 84 years of her life, receiving belly rubs and eating fresh figs and organic blackberries.
She was named after Noah's grandfather in the Bible, who was said to have been 969 years old.
Methuselah is an Australian lungfish, a species with both lungs and gills. Australian lungfish are believed to be the evolutionary link between amphibians and fish, AP News reported. The average lungfish can measure up to nearly 5 feet and weigh up to 95 pounds.
Although it is difficult to determine the sex of the species without a blood draw, biologists in San Francisco believe Methuselah is female.
A spokesperson for the California Academy of Sciences told Newsweek that Methuselah will soon be part of a research project being conducted by a research group out of Western Australia.
"Using a tiny sample of her DNA they will be able to determine her age," the spokesperson said. "The DNA sample will also allow them to determine which population she came from and hence, what river system."
According to Allan Jan, Methuselah's keeper and a senior biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, Methuselah has a "mellow" personality and is rather spoiled by the biologists, receiving belly and back rubs.
"I tell my volunteers, pretend she's an underwater puppy, very mellow, gentle, but of course if she gets spooked she will have sudden bouts of energy. But for the most part she's just calm," Jan said.
Methuselah is also fed a nutritious diet of assorted fish and often has blackberries, romaine lettuce, and grapes—all organic—rotated through her diet. Jan said she also has a taste for figs but will only eat them when they are fresh in the fall and never frozen.
"She's picky. And being that old, I allow her to be picky," Jan said.
A spokesperson for the academy also told Newsweek that Methuselah lives in an 800-gallon tank with a small school of Australian Splendid rainbowfish.
Until a few years ago, the oldest known Australian lungfish was 95 years old and lived at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The lungfish named Granddad died in 2017.
Biologists said it is unlikely they will get a replacement lungfish after Methuselah dies because the species is now threatened and can no longer be exported from Australia.
The academy also has two additional lungfish, one named Small who weighs 15.2 pounds, and Medium who weighs 26 pounds.
Uncommon Knowledge
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