That can’t be a fish? This is too crazy.! | Spotted Handfish | S01 070 | Remarkable Fish

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:01]That can't be a fish. It's walking on hands. Meet one of the rarest fish on Earth, the spotted handfish. Fewer than 1,000 are thought to remain. Found only in Tasmania's Derwent Estie. Instead of swimming, it uses hand-like fins to walk across the seafloor.

[00:00:20]Just 12 cm, roughly the size of a 5-in fish, cream to orange with dark spots.

[00:00:27]It's as strange as it is striking, but survival here is fragile. Males guard clusters of eggs on the seafloor until they hatch into a dangerous world. And invasive starfish, the northern Pacific sea star, is destroying habitat and threatening breeding sites. With seaggrass disappearing, conservationists are restoring habitat and running captive breeding programs to pull the species back from the edge. The spotted handfish is proof that even the strangest creatures can be worth saving and worth knowing about.