Corphish are crustacean Pokémon with a red shell. They possess four pairs of limbs in total: two claws and three pairs of legs used for walking about.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Corphish has the ability to live in polluted water, where it will quickly reproduce. Its powerful pincers allow it to use the moves ViceGrip and Crunch, and ultimately, the one-hit-knockout move Guillotine.
Behavior
Corphish try to compensate for their small size by being stronger than any other Pokémon on their territory. If a new Pokémon enters its territory, the resident Corphish will immediately challenge it to battle.
Another Corphish appeared in Gone Corphishin'. Ash battled and captured this Ruffian Pokémon at the end of the episode. Ash's Corphish serves as the main comedic relief member of Ash's team and the only Pokémon that Ash captured in Hoenn that hasn't evolved, save for his Torkoal (which doesn't have an evolved form).
Corphish, the ruffian Pokémon. Corphish is exceptional in its ability to survive. It adapts to any environment, will drive out its inhabitants, and claim the territory for its own.
Corphish were originally foreign Pokémon that were imported as pets. They eventually turned up in the wild. This Pokémon is very hardy and has greatly increased its population.
Corphish catches prey with its sharp claws. It has no likes or dislikes when it comes to food - it will eat anything. This Pokémon has no trouble living in filthy water.
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Corphish is the only Pokémon to date with a catch rate of 205.
Corphish's Generation IV sprite is very similar to its Generation III sprite. The only difference is that only one of its claws is being held up in its Generation IV sprite, while both of them are being held up in its Generation III sprite.
Corphish can be found in the Hoenn region, but it says in its Pokédex entries that it came from another region overseas. This would make it the first exotic species in the Pokémon world.
Assuming that most regions of the Pokémon nation are based on areas in Japan, it can be inferred that Corphish is originally from the United States, which is the same country the Kanto Gym Leader Lt. Surge is from.
Corphish only has eight limbs, including claws, whereas both crayfish and lobsters have ten limbs.
Origin
Based on the Pokémon Ruby Pokédex entry, Corphish is probably based on the Red Swamp Crayfish. Native to North America, this species was introduced in Japan as food for bullfrogs. Today, these crayfish are popular pets in Japan.[1]
Alternatively, it could be a homonymic play on the arcane Newfoundland fishing term corfish; the meaning of "corfish" is not clear. According to "West to Pemaquid,"[2], corfish were a "kind of dried fish," specifically, "a green variety." It goes on to say that the other kind of dried fish was called "dunfish," which we can ascertain from the 1913 Webster means "codfish cured in a particular manner, so as to be of a superior quality." We can assume from this that "corfish" is thus probably a type of preserved, dried codfish, and, according to West to Pemaquid, lower quality than dunfish (corfish ... was suitable for sale ... as slave food ...). "Colony of Avalon,"[3] further asserts corfish to mean "wet-cured fish" (to cure being to preserve using salts or smoke). Corfish is mostly obsolete, but is still sometimes used, and can especially be found in old English; for example, see page 279 of Captain John Smith: A Select Edition of His Writings or New England Before the Pilgrim Fathers Landed[4]: "Of dry fish we made about 40000. of Cor fish about 7000," and "With these Furres, the Traine, and Corfish I returned for England in the Bark ..." (1614). The Dictionary of Newfoundland English defines "corfish," but it is not widely available.
Old English also used the forms "cor fish" and "cor-fish." Other references to corfish in archaic documents, particularly those authored by Captain John Smith, which provides clues to its meaning are as follows:
"where they take nothing but small Cod, where of the greatest they make Cor-fish, and the rest is hard dried, which we call Poore-John, would amaze a man with wonder.[5]
"Newfoundland doth yearly freight near eight hundred sail of ships with a silly, lean, skinny poor-john, and cor fish ..."[6]
Its Japanese name is based on 平家蟹 heikegani, Heike crab.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
For other sprites and images, please see Corphish images on Bulbagarden Archives.
