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A woman walked onto the Pasir Ris mangrove swamp boardwalk on Aug. 24 and found a fish flopping about.

What to do with fish?

According to the woman who shared her bizarre encounter on the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook group, she was genuinely perplexed about what she should do with the fish before her, which was near the Kitchen Garden botanical display.

She wrote: "Should I carry him to a river or something?"

Her post was put up at 4:25pm.

The fish is believed to have jumped out of the water onto the boardwalk, or ended up there as the waters close to the boardwalk rose or overflowed due to the incessant rain.

Responses

In response to her post, some urged her to move the fish, while others cautioned against it citing sharp teeth (correct assessment) and toxins (wrong assessment), and still others misidentified the creature, as well as some who provided platitudes, such as, "You see a living thing in need of help, just do it."

Any hesitance in stepping in to help an animal in its primary environment is understandable, as it was recently highlighted in discussions about human intervention in nature.

Tossed fish back into the water

In response to the comments, the woman revealed that she eventually found a plastic bag to handle the fish and tossed it back into the brackish swampy waters.

She also let on that she had doubts about where to release the fish as she did not recognise the species and wondered if it was a fresh water or salt water species.

She wrote in one of the comments: "See la, don't even know if its fresh water fish or what..."

Fish is a Common Snakehead

One of the commenters subsequently identified the fish as a Common Snakehead, a fresh water species.

He wrote that the swampy waters the fish was released in is suitable for this species, as it can make its way upstream if the waters get too salty during high tide.

Snakeheads are known to be a hardy species of fish that can stay out of water for hours on end without any detrimental effects.

They are known to traverse over land surfaces in search of other bodies of water.

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