<span style="font-family: Palatino;">Do fish fart?</span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> According to our ichthyologist at the University of Guam, fish flatulence per se has not been studied, although people have investigated fish digestion. They find that although most fish have alkaline intestinal environments like our own, coral-eating fish have acidic intestinal contents. The acid serves to dissolve coral skeletal material. Coral has the same composition as Tums (calcium carbonate). One product of the reaction between acid and calcium carbonate is carbon dioxide gas. Therefore, it is logical to assume that coral-eating fish fart a lot.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> The other fish probably fart also, for the same reasons that we do.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> However, Mike Pulte, a great fish enthusiast, said that he has never seen a fish do it.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> I asked our ichthyologist if it were possible that fish gas would go into the swim bladder instead of out the anal opening. He said that modern fish have an air bladder that is independent of the gastrointestinal tract. The gas comes from enzymatic activity and not from the intestine. Older models of fish have their swim bladder connected to the gastrointestinal tract, but it is attached high up, closer to the mouth than to the other end, and these fish come to the surface and gulp air to fill the bladder. Therefore, we can assume that intestinal gas leaves the fish through the anal opening.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> We also pondered the possibility of fish making noise via flatulence, but apparently most fish noises are made through belching rather than farting.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> Lisa P., an aquarium enthusiast, reports that she <u>has</u> seen her fish fart: "I have four aquariums and many fish, and I have personally witnessed fish farting! My goldfish used to do it all the time! You'd see a little bubble come out of his anus and stay there, trapped in the mucus of a long string of poop. (Ugh!) And my opaline gourami does it too. Neither of these are coral-eating fish. I have only owned two coral-eating fish so far, but I have never seen either of them fart. It seems most likely to me that much of this gas comes from air swallowed during eating. Also, goldfish have a very simple digestive system and their food is absorbed inefficiently, so possibly the bacteria have more to feed on?"</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+2px;">Do turtles fart?</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> (Question submitted by coolBettyann)</span></span></em> <span style="font-family: Palatino;"> <span style="font-size: 1+1px;">Yes, turtles do fart, and their farts smell incredibly bad, as do the farts of snakes. In fact, it is my opinion, based on personal experience with reptiles and not on any formal research, that many reptiles use farts as a weapon.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> Reptile farts smell so bad that sometimes you can tell that one is nearby in the woods, even on a windy day, before you can see the animal. One day I was hiking through the woods in Arkansas with a friend and I told my friend, "I smell a snake fart." A second later, the snake crawled across the path. Astounding but true!</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> In an article published in the December 2000 issue of Discover</em>, "the world's leading expert on snake sounds," Bruce Young of LaFayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, affirmed that snakes do fart. The sonoran coral snake and the western hook-nosed snake fart with an audible popping sound when disturbed.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> According to our ichthyologist at the University of Guam, fish flatulence per se has not been studied, although people have investigated fish digestion. They find that although most fish have alkaline intestinal environments like our own, coral-eating fish have acidic intestinal contents. The acid serves to dissolve coral skeletal material. Coral has the same composition as Tums (calcium carbonate). One product of the reaction between acid and calcium carbonate is carbon dioxide gas. Therefore, it is logical to assume that coral-eating fish fart a lot.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> The other fish probably fart also, for the same reasons that we do.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> However, Mike Pulte, a great fish enthusiast, said that he has never seen a fish do it.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> I asked our ichthyologist if it were possible that fish gas would go into the swim bladder instead of out the anal opening. He said that modern fish have an air bladder that is independent of the gastrointestinal tract. The gas comes from enzymatic activity and not from the intestine. Older models of fish have their swim bladder connected to the gastrointestinal tract, but it is attached high up, closer to the mouth than to the other end, and these fish come to the surface and gulp air to fill the bladder. Therefore, we can assume that intestinal gas leaves the fish through the anal opening.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> We also pondered the possibility of fish making noise via flatulence, but apparently most fish noises are made through belching rather than farting.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> Lisa P., an aquarium enthusiast, reports that she <u>has</u> seen her fish fart: "I have four aquariums and many fish, and I have personally witnessed fish farting! My goldfish used to do it all the time! You'd see a little bubble come out of his anus and stay there, trapped in the mucus of a long string of poop. (Ugh!) And my opaline gourami does it too. Neither of these are coral-eating fish. I have only owned two coral-eating fish so far, but I have never seen either of them fart. It seems most likely to me that much of this gas comes from air swallowed during eating. Also, goldfish have a very simple digestive system and their food is absorbed inefficiently, so possibly the bacteria have more to feed on?"</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+2px;">Do turtles fart?</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> (Question submitted by coolBettyann)</span></span></em> <span style="font-family: Palatino;"> <span style="font-size: 1+1px;">Yes, turtles do fart, and their farts smell incredibly bad, as do the farts of snakes. In fact, it is my opinion, based on personal experience with reptiles and not on any formal research, that many reptiles use farts as a weapon.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> Reptile farts smell so bad that sometimes you can tell that one is nearby in the woods, even on a windy day, before you can see the animal. One day I was hiking through the woods in Arkansas with a friend and I told my friend, "I smell a snake fart." A second later, the snake crawled across the path. Astounding but true!</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Palatino;"><span style="font-size: 1+1px;"> In an article published in the December 2000 issue of Discover</em>, "the world's leading expert on snake sounds," Bruce Young of LaFayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, affirmed that snakes do fart. The sonoran coral snake and the western hook-nosed snake fart with an audible popping sound when disturbed.</span></span>
