The common moonfish (lat. Mola mola) is the owner of a unique figure and a real giant underwater world. It is one of the largest representatives of the moon fish family (Molidae) from the order Tetraodontiformes.
Relationships with people
The largest specimen, 426 cm long and weighing 2235 kg, was caught in 1908 near the Australian city of Sydney. The unusually shaped body allows one to quickly distinguish this species from others. sea creatures. Fishermen have always considered the catch of such fish to be an exceptional event. Some of them considered the appearance of the moon fish bad sign, foreshadowing a poor catch. Before a storm approaches, they swim in large numbers into bays to escape the weather.
In East Asian countries, this type of fish is caught in large numbers because its meat is considered medicinal. In fact, it is poisonous due to the content of tetrodotoxin, which can lead to death.
According to reviews from gourmets who have tasted moonfish meat, it has unpleasant smell, and if you cook it for a long time, it acquires a sticky consistency. Caviar, liver and milt are strictly prohibited from being eaten. Such a feast often ends in death.
Behavior
Sunfish are found in temperate and tropical waters of seas and oceans. Traveling with warm currents, it swims into the coastal zone of Iceland or Norway. Even its appearance in the Mediterranean Sea will not surprise anyone.
Living in the open sea, the fish prefers to be close to the surface, but sometimes dives to a depth of up to 300 m. This giant is distinguished by its peaceful character and its leisurely way of life.
Until recently, the sunfish was classified as oceanic macroplankton, but targeted observations showed that this sloth can reach speeds of up to 3.3 km/h and cover a distance of about 26 km per day. The giant fish can't overcome strong current, therefore, it often continues its journey captured by some warm current.
During movement, its body is motionless; movement is carried out only by its fins. Hovering on the surface, it exposes its dorsal fin above the water surface. Sometimes she sinks to the bottom and hangs head down. Despite its laziness, in a moment of danger, the moon fish can quickly fly over the water.
Furrowing the expanses of the seas and oceans, the fish, along with warm currents, approach the coast to feast on jellyfish. Its diet is enriched with eel larvae, small crustaceans and all kinds of planktonic organisms, as well as various types of algae.
In clear weather, the moonfish approaches the surface of the water and basks in the sun's rays. Many ichthyologists argue that this behavior is characteristic of sick or aged specimens.
Reproduction of the moon fish
Spawning begins in July and ends in October. The fish heads to coastal waters and spawns about 300 million eggs there. Together with plankton, they move freely on the surface.
In their development, the larvae go through three stages of metamorphosis and externally resemble pufferfish. Their body length is 1 mm. They have a large head and a clearly visible tail peduncle.
During the second stage, the larva grows plates of bone on its small body. At the same time, the caudal peduncle becomes smaller. A small part of the anal and dorsal fins are fused into the caudal fin.
The larva in the third stage of development already resembles an adult. For some time she was ranked among separate species Pisces moons. The size of the grown larvae reaches 1.5 cm. Their peculiar short body is flattened on the sides. The tail, along with the caudal peduncle, disappears forever. Small plates with a small cone-shaped tooth grow on the skin.
Under influence evolutionary processes The moonfish lost its caudal stalk and tail. In place of the caudal fin, parts of the anal and caudal fin appeared, which fused together. She was left without pelvic fins and a pelvic girdle in her skeleton. Cartilaginous tissue remains as part of her skeleton, and the spinal ridge consists of 16-20 vertebrae.
Possessing low mobility, the sunfish can become easy prey for larger ones. sea predators– killer whales, sea lions and sharks.
Description
The length of adult individuals reaches 4 m, weight no more than 2 tons. There are no jaws in the small mouth. Instead, there are bone plates that form a powerful beak.
The short powerful body is flattened laterally. The dorsal fin is very long. The pectoral fins are small.
The moon fish has greatly reduced longitudinal muscles, with the help of which other fish bend their bodies. To move the anal and dorsal fins, there are separate powerful bundles of muscles.
The color varies from gray to brown with a silvery tint with light spots. The anal fin is long and strongly pointed. Instead of a tail there is a fin formed by connecting the anal and dorsal fins. The rough skin is covered with bony tubercles and small spines like a shell.
The average lifespan of a moon fish in natural conditions is about 20 years.
A whale is not a whale, a shark is not a shark... a sunfish. Photo, description and Interesting Facts“I and the World” suggests reading about this fish in today’s article.
Unusual appearance
What does a sunfish (Mola Mola) look like? Its huge size and unusual appearance make it completely different from others. It is part of the moon-shaped family (Molidae), of which it is a prominent representative. It is almost round in shape, which is why it is sometimes called the Sun.
Luna has no fin on her tail, as if it had been cut off. In fact, these fish have an atrophied back part of the spine, so there is no tail. In this place they have a cartilaginous growth that acts as a paddle-fin. Because of this round shape, it received a fourth name - Head.
The large body is strongly flattened on the sides and looks like a disk. The upper and lower fins are much larger than the pectoral fins. The eyes are large enough for a fish, and the mouth is small and resembles a parrot's beak. The color depends on the habitat: it varies from dark brown to light silver. There are no scales, but the skin is quite thick and rough, and two gill slits are visible on the sides. All these “lunar” features can be seen in the photograph.
Interestingly, at a time of danger, the Moon can change its color. Flounder also has this feature. And thanks to its thick skin, fishermen’s harpoons even bounce off it.
The size and weight of the Luna fish are impressive, because it grows more than three meters and about a ton. At the beginning of the 20th century, a fish was caught near the city of Sydney with a length of 310 cm, from the upper fin to the tip of the lower one - 425 cm, and a weight of more than two tons.
Behavior and nutrition
Due to its low speed, the fish cannot catch up with its prey, so it simply sucks in everything that gets in its way. These are jellyfish, ctenophores, plankton, sometimes they swallow starfish, crustaceans, algae, small fish.
Prefers comfort
Where does the common sunfish live? Lives in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans except the Arctic. Sometimes they swim into Black, Baltic Sea and to the Scandinavian shores. It gives preference to the lower layers of habitat at a depth of up to 850 m. Older individuals do not try to descend below 200 m.
The water temperature that is comfortable for life should not be below 10 degrees, otherwise they freeze and lose orientation, eventually dying. Sometimes they can be seen lying on the surface. Scientists believe that they warm up in this way before immersing themselves in cold layers of water.
Interaction with people
When meeting a person, the Moon is not able to cause him any harm. But in some African countries, where it is found closer to the coast, local residents consider it a harbinger of trouble and try to return to the shore, closer to home. And it’s easy to explain: fish come closer to the shore when they sense the onset of a storm, so people associate the appearance of the Moon with danger.
Although in Taiwan it is considered edible and even a delicacy, the fish has flabby and rather tasteless meat. It is also used in Chinese medicine. Sometimes they are kept in aquariums for public viewing.
But in nature, Moons often die because of unscrupulous people who throw plastic bags and other garbage into the water. Plastic reminds fish of jellyfish and, after swallowing garbage, they die from suffocation or from starvation when the bags clog their stomachs.
There are so many amazing creatures on our planet - understandable or completely unknown. The Moonfish or Sun is an unusual and strange creature that does not harm anyone.
“In a distant warm sea, where there are no ice floes, there lives a sad sunfish. It is big and round, and only swims straight, and cannot dodge the shark fish's teeth. That’s why it’s sad.” Animated film "Umka".
Video
In Latin it is called Mola Mola, and on English language "Ocean Sunfish" is a fish that looks like the moon, which gives it its name. She looks like she only has one head instead of a body, but it's not that simple.
Imagine an animal weighing 1000 kg having a brain the size of a peanut, weighing only 4 grams!
This explains why this fish is very quiet, calm... and quite stupid.
What does a moon fish look like?
The body is tall, strongly laterally flattened, covered with very thick, elastic skin. No coccyx. High fin dorsal and anal. Small mouth . Adults do not have a bladder.
The largest specimen weighs two tons and is 3 meters long!
The sunfish is also probably the most fertile fish in the world. The average female of this species lays about 300 million eggs!
Where does the moon fish live and what does it eat?
The moon fish lives a rather lonely life, swimming freely in the vast expanses of the ocean. Sometimes, however, they gather in groups and swim sideways on the surface of the water, apparently sunbathing in the sun (hence their English name - Sunfish)
Sometimes these giants accidentally get caught in fishing nets and fishermen are forced to lift them on board using cranes.
Despite their rather formidable appearance, representatives of this species feed on plankton. They also do not disdain jellyfish, calamari and eel larvae, and do not miss shellfish. The moonfish can be found in all tropical waters, and, despite its size, it is absolutely harmless to people, and the places where it appears are often the site of large-scale diving expeditions.
On the other hand, a huge fish poses a serious threat to small ships - a collision with a small yacht moving at high speed can end badly for both the fish and the sailors.
Moonfish caught on Sakhalin
A fish with a record weight of 1,100 kilograms was pulled out with nets by a fishing seiner from Sakhalin called the Kuril Fisherman. Russian fishermen were working near the island of Iturup, their main goal was pink salmon, and the sunfish turned up by chance.
Photo: Sakhalin.info Nevertheless, they delivered a rare specimen to the base. Since there was no room for it in the cold hold, the fish deteriorated during the passage and loading ashore. She was taken to the Gidrostroy company's landfill, where workers feed and photograph the bears. Very quickly nothing remained of the thousand-kilogram carcass.
Largest size of Pisces moon
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Moonfish, sunfish, headfish - these are all names of one oceanic fish, the family of moonfish, or moonfish, (Molidae). This family includes five species of sunfish, the most common of which is Mola mola.
The sunfish is the largest of modern bony fishes, an adult of which on average reaches 3 m in length and 150 kg in mass. The Guinness Book of Records records data on a fish that was caught in 1908 near Sydney; its body length was 4.26 m and its weight was 2235 kg.
Although there is evidence that in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the United States (New Hampshire), a specimen 5.5 m long was caught, the mass of which remained unrecorded.
The habitat of the sunfish is tropical, subtropical and temperate waters of the world's oceans. However, this sunfish goes only to the tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans to spawn. Some adult fish can be carried by warm currents and at the same time penetrate into moderately warm waters.
In the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, fish can be seen near Newfoundland, Iceland, Great Britain, in the Baltic Sea and along the coasts of Norway and the Kola Peninsula. You can also meet this fish in the Sea of Japan and the Kuril Islands.
The moon fish surprises with its unusual appearance. Her body is compressed on both sides, while it is very tall and short. If you look at the fish in profile, it seems that it is round and resembles the disk of the full moon, and the full face of the fish rather resembles a millstone of a mill. Also, if you look closely at this giant, it resembles a fish well known to us - flounder. Thanks to this appearance This fish got its names (moon, sun, head).
The body of the fish is covered with skin, which is quite thick and at the same time elastic, like cartilage. The skin of the fish is protected by small bony tubercles, which serve as scales, since this fish is devoid of true scales. Thanks to this skin structure, the moonfish is not afraid of direct blows from a harpoon; it simply bounces off such armor. The color of the covers is varied; you can see brown, silver-gray, white fish, sometimes with patterns.
The fish does not have a caudal fin, but instead there is a tuberous pseudo-tail. This feature is associated with complete reduction of the pelvic girdle. The dorsal and anal fins are large and fused together. The sunfish swims lying on its side, alternately moving its fins, while the small pectoral fins stabilize the position of the body.
To steer (to control the direction of movement), fish release a stream of water from the mouth or gills. Having this body shape, the moonfish is a very poor swimmer; it uses passive movement. However, at the same time, it takes advantage of the peculiarities of its anatomy - by exposing its large triangular-shaped dorsal fin from the water, it scares off human fishermen who, due to inexperience, may mistake it for a shark.
Basically, this fish swims at a depth of 100-400m. But there are specimens that rise to the surface of the water. Many researchers believe that only sick fish float on the surface of the water. As evidence, the fact is cited that the contents of the stomachs of fish caught on the sea surface are very small.
During a storm, fish move to shallow water. This feature of the moonfish was noticed by local residents of the coastal islands, and they believe its appearance in the coastal waters bad omen, as this is a sign of an approaching storm. On the other hand, it is a reliable harbinger of fishermen.
The fish's head ends in a small mouth, similar to a parrot's beak. This non-closing beak is formed by four fused front teeth. The fish sucks in its prey - zooplankton. In the pharynx there are pharyngeal teeth, which are quite long and perform the function of grinding food.
Confirmation of this can be found by looking at gastric content study data. Crustaceans, small squids, ctenophores and jellyfish were found in it. But there is also evidence of active catching of prey, as the famous Russian scientist - ichthyologist Vedensky, said that he witnessed a previously unprecedented hunt for mackerel by the sunfish. During this, the sunfish accelerates as fast as it can with its body and jumps out of the water, splashing onto the surface and stunning the victim.
The fish's skeleton consists mainly of cartilaginous tissue; it has fewer vertebrae, compared to other bony fish, for example, the species mola mola has only 16. An adult sunfish does not have a swim bladder.
The brain is very small - 4 g, which explains the apathetic behavior of the fish. So, for example, a person can freely approach her in the water at a fairly close distance and she will not be afraid. The sunfish can produce sounds by rubbing its pharyngeal teeth. About which ichthyologist Alfred Bram wrote: “When irritated, the moonfish grunts like a pig.”
These fish are solitary fish; very rarely they can be found in pairs, much less in a school. Their spawning begins in July and ends in October. Mating occurs on the surface of the water. The number of eggs laid by one individual is enormous - 300 million, which indicates a high degree of embryo death. The size of each egg is approximately 0.1 cm.
If you lay out all the eggs in a row, you can get a chain 300 km long. When the moon fish fry are born, they are 6 million times smaller than the volume of their mother. Taking into account the limited habitat of the sunfish, it can be assumed that the survival rate of juveniles is very low.
In his life cycle All moon fish go through several stages of development; development occurs with metamorphosis, since all forms are different and not similar to each other. Having emerged from the eggs, the larvae resemble pufferfish (rounded body, large head).
Then, on the body of the larvae that have not died and grown, wide bone plates appear, the protrusions of which will gradually turn into sharp long spines. As the larva grows, the caudal fin and swim bladder disappear, and all the teeth the fish has grow together into a single plate.
Fish larvae and young individuals swim like all bony fish. The fry are very different from the adult fish and until recently they were considered a separate species.
It is difficult for the sunfish to move through the ocean, so it easily becomes prey for sharks, killer whales, sea lions and other large predators. When hunting them, predators try first of all to bite off the fins in order to completely immobilize the apathetic fish.
The size of the sunfish population is also threatened by humans: in many Asian countries, the meat of this fish is considered medicinal, which is why large-scale fishing is carried out. According to the latest data received by scientists, the meat of these fish is toxic because, like puffer fish, it contains the poison tetrodotoxin, which often leads to death.
But there are still fans who simply eat its meat boiled or fried. In his reviews, Alfred Bram wrote: “The meat of this fish is very tasteless, like glue, with a disgusting smell; If you boil it, you can use it as glue.”
But if you eat the liver, milt or caviar of these fish, then a person will definitely receive serious poisoning, which can lead to death. But for humans in their natural habitat, these fish are not dangerous, and many lovers of underwater beauty go specifically to Indonesia (Bali) to see it and swim next to it in natural conditions.
For aquarium lovers, we can draw a regrettable conclusion - the sunfish is not suitable for keeping in a closed system - captivity (aquarium, pool), since it does not adapt and quickly dies. This is due to the impossibility of providing real living conditions for these fish.
Since the study of the behavior and lifestyle of these organisms was carried out very superficially, out of five existing species- only one has been studied.
When you meet this fish in the ocean, you can be seriously scared. Of course, a colossus 3-5 meters long and weighing several tons is capable of inspiring fear with its size and completely implausible appearance.
In fact, the sunfish is completely harmless, because it feeds on jellyfish, ctenophores, small fish, crustaceans and other zooplankton, which, unfortunately, happen to be next to it. This fish does not know how to maneuver and swim quickly in pursuit of prey, but only sucks into its mouth-beak everything edible that happens to be nearby.
Because of its rounded outlines, in many languages of the world this unusual creature is called fish moon, or sunfish (sunfish), due to the habit of basking in the sun while floating on the surface. The translation of the German name means " floating head", Polish - " lonely head", the Chinese call this fish " an overturned car" In Latin, the most numerous genus of these fish is called mola, which means "millstone". The fish earned this name not only by its body shape, but also by its grey, rough skin.
Sunfishes belong to the order Pufferfishes, which includes pufferfishes and urchinfishes, with which they have much in common. First of all, these are four fused front teeth, which form a characteristic non-closing beak, which gave the Latin name to the order - Tetraodontiformes (four-toothed). Family of moon-shaped, or moon-fish, ( Molidae) is united by the unusual appearance of these millstone-like animals. It seems that at the dawn of evolution someone took a bite out of the fish back bodies immediately behind the dorsal and anal fins, and they survived and gave birth to equally strange offspring. Indeed, representatives of this family have fewer vertebrae than other bony fish, for example, the species mola mola– there are only 16 of them, pelvic girdle completely reduced, the caudal fin is absent, and instead there is a tuberous pseudo-tail. The family Molidae includes three genera and five species of sunfish:
- Genus Masturus
- Genus Mola
- Genus Ranzania
Almost all members of the sunfish family live in tropical, subtropical, and sometimes temperate waters. All of them reach large sizes and have a rounded, laterally compressed shape of the head and body. They have rough skin, no tail bones, and a skeleton made mostly of cartilage. Sunfishes do not have bony plates in their skin, but the skin itself is thick and dense, like cartilage. They are painted in brown, silver-gray, white, sometimes with patterns. These fish lack a swim bladder, which disappears in the early stages of larval development.
Sunfish are the largest of the bony fish. Largest measured mola mola reached a length of 3.3 m and weighed 2.3 tons. There are reports that fish were caught that reached a length of more than five meters. In the process of development from larvae to adults, all sunfish go through several stages of development, and all forms are completely different from each other. The larvae that hatch from the eggs resemble pufferfish, then wide bony plates appear on the body of the grown larvae, which are subsequently preserved only in fish of the genus Ranzania; in the mole and masturus, the protrusions on the plates gradually turn into sharp long spines, which then disappear. The caudal fin and swim bladder gradually disappear, and the teeth merge into a single plate.
Moonfish – (lat. Mola mola), translated from Latin as millstone. This fish can be more than three meters long and weigh about one and a half tons. The largest specimen of the sunfish was caught in New Hampshire, USA. Its length was five and a half meters, there is no data on weight. The shape of the fish’s body resembles a disk; it was this feature that gave rise to the Latin name.
The most studied are the moonfish of the genus Mola. Fish of the genus Masturus are very similar to mola mola, but they have an elongated pseudo-tail and the eyes are more forward. There was an opinion that these fish are anomalous mola, which retained a larval tail, but studies have shown that during the growth of the fish, the rays of the pseudo-tail appear after the reduction of the larval one. Somewhat different from other sunfish are representatives of the genus Ranzania, which reach a small size of 1 m and have a flatter and elongated body shape.
All moonfish use very long and narrow anal and dorsal fins when moving, flapping them like a bird's wings, while small pectoral fins serve as stabilizers. To steer, fish spit a strong stream of water from their mouths or gills. Despite their love to bask in the sun, sunfish live at a respectable depth of several hundred and sometimes thousands of meters.
It is reported that sunfish can produce sounds by rubbing their pharyngeal teeth, which are long and claw-like.
In 1908, this moonfish was caught 65 kilometers off the coast of Sydney; it became entangled in the propellers of the steamship Fiona, which is why the ship was unable to move further. At that time it was the largest specimen of the moon fish caught, it reached a length of 3.1 m and a width of 4.1 m. Photo: danmeth
Sunfish are record holders for the number of eggs laid; one female is capable of laying several hundred million eggs. Despite this fecundity, the number of these extraordinary fish is declining. In addition to natural enemies that prey on larvae and adults, the sunfish population is threatened by humans: in many Asian countries they are considered medicinal and large-scale catching is carried out, although there is information that the meat of these fish contains toxins, like those of hedgehog fish and puffer fish , and in internal organs There is a poison called tetrodotoxin, just like puffer fish.
The moon fish has thick skin. It is elastic, and its surface is covered with small bony projections. The larvae of fish of this species and young individuals swim in the usual way. Adult large fish swim on their sides, quietly moving their fins. They seem to lie on the surface of the water, where they are very easy to spot and catch. However, many experts believe that only sick fish swim this way. As an argument, they cite the fact that the stomach of fish caught on the surface is usually empty.
Compared to other fish, the sunfish is a poor swimmer. She is unable to fight the current and often floats at the will of the waves, without a goal. This is observed by sailors, noticing the dorsal fin of this clumsy fish.
In the Atlantic Ocean, the moonfish can reach Great Britain and Iceland, the coast of Norway, and even go further north. IN Pacific Ocean in summer you can see moonfish in the Sea of Japan, more often in the northern part, and near the Kuril Islands.
Although the moonfish looks quite menacing due to its impressive size, it is not scary to humans. However, there are many signs among South African sailors who interpret the appearance of this fish as a sign of trouble. This is probably due to the fact that the sunfish approaches the shore only before the weather worsens. The sailors associate the appearance of the fish with an approaching storm and rush to return to shore. Such superstitions also arise due to the unusual appearance of the fish and its swimming method.
