Location and Habitat
Location and Habitat





    The Coelacanth has only been found to live in two places, off the coast of Madagascar and in Indonesia. Fossilized Coelacanth's have been found on every continent except Antarctica (Coad, 1998). This wide distribution of fossils could be due continental drift, or there could have been many different species of Coelacanths that lived in many different locations. The present Coelacanth inhabits deep waters, up to 200 metres in depth (McGrouther, 1998). During the day they float around, without touching eachother, in submarine caves (Coad, 1998). In the evening they leave the caves to feed. It's strong bony fins allow the fish to swim in any direction, including upside down and backwards (Coad, 1998). These fish are very sensitive to temperature, salinity and pressure changes, so that is why the fish has never been kept alive outside it's habitat.