This Octogenarian Is the Oldest Fish in Captivity. And She Likes Belly Rubs.

[Judi Lynn]

By Kimberly Hickok, Reference Editor | November 14, 2018 07:21am ET

Methuselah is no ordinary fish, and this month, she's swimming into her 80th year as a resident of the California Academy of Sciences' Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.

The mature, 4-foot-long (1.2 meters) fish came to the aquarium from Australia in 1938 when she was already adult size, so experts estimate she's between 85 and 90 years old. That likely makes her the world's oldest fish in captivity.

Appropriately named after the longest-living biblical figure (in the bible, Methuselah lived to be 969 years old), it's not just Methuselah's age that makes her stand out. As an Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus fosteri), she represents one of only six living species of air-breathing lungfish, which belong to the class Sarcopterygii. [Photos: The Freakiest Looking Fish]

This ancient group of freshwater fish has been around for 400 million years and is characterized by a unique swim bladder that not only controls buoyancy but also functions as a primitive lung that allows the fish to breathe air.

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