Fish moon where it lives. Moonfish - an amazing sea creature from the Guinness book
giant fish-moon is an amazing creature that is found in the tropical waters of the Atlantic, as well as in the Indian and Pacific oceans, where it spawns. This huge representative bony fish can reach three meters in length, and weigh almost one and a half tons. By the way, the giant's brain weighs only four grams!
What does a moonfish look like?
In Latin, the name of this fish is Mola mola, which means "millstone". And for good reason, since outwardly this laterally compressed, having a disproportionately short, motionless tail, a creature with high fins, in shape is more like a disk than an ordinary fish. The moonfish has a very thick and elastic skin covered with small tubercles of bone substance, and a tiny beak-shaped mouth, devoid of teeth. They are replaced by an enamel plate.
Giant character
The moonfish is a bad swimmer most she spends time lying on her side, near the surface of the water, sleepily moving her high fins, which she alternately exposes to the air. This species is not able to resist a strong current, so this good-natured monster can often be seen drifting aimlessly without even trying to overcome it. True, such a statement applies only to adults, and the young swim, like ordinary fish.
Does she know the danger?
Obviously, the huge size and clumsy build have led to the fact that the mola-mola almost does not react to approaching ships, it can even be touched by a hook before this giant realizes to flee. True, it does not matter to her. The fish is easy to catch, at the same time it makes a grunt like a piglet, and rotates its eyes in all directions. But it is not worth catching it for food, since the meat of the moon fish is more like glue, and besides, it smells bad.
What does the moon fish eat
Zooplankton are found in the stomach of this species: small crustaceans, squids, leptocephalus larvae, jellyfish and many salps. It is believed that these large individuals can descend to great depths.
reproduction
By the way, this fish is the most prolific among all its relatives. She alone can produce up to three hundred million eggs. True, only a few survive from them. In newly born fry, the body has an elongated shape and normal fins. But as soon as they reach a centimeter size, they acquire a spherical shape and become covered with thorns. Babies are so unlike their parents that they have long been mistaken for a separate species of fish.
Why does the moonfish cause fear
Despite its huge size, the pier cannot harm a person. She is absolutely safe for him. But South African fishermen, for example, are afraid of meeting with a moonfish. They believe that this fish is a harbinger of trouble. And so, as soon as they see her, they immediately return home. True, this is understandable. After all, a fish that cannot swim is found close to the coast when it is nailed by an impending storm. So superstitious fear in this case is quite justified.
We may lose the good-natured giant!
The moon fish, the photo of which you can see in the article, has practically no enemies. Its thick skin and huge size are a reliable defense against predators. But still, occasionally sharks decide to attack this floating "millstone", biting off the fins of a helpless giant, which dooms the fish to inevitable death at the bottom of the ocean. In Japan, as in Taiwan, for example, the meat of this fish is considered a delicacy. And in the southern latitudes, although they don’t eat it, they consider it a pest that needs to be destroyed. So we can lose an amazing little-studied giant - the moonfish.
Ordinary moon-fish, or sun fish, or head fish(lat. Mola mola) - a species of the genus of moon-fish of the family of the same name. These are the heaviest of modern bony fish. reach in length three meters. The Guinness Book of Records provides data on an individual caught on September 18, 1908 near Sydney, whose length was 3.1 m, height - 4.26 m, and weight 2235 kg.
Ordinary moon-fish live in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. They are found in the pelagial at a depth of up to 844 m. They have a laterally compressed disc-shaped body. The dorsal and anal fins are shifted back and form a tail plate. The skin is devoid of scales. The teeth are fused into a "beak". Pelvic fins are absent. The coloration is bluish or grayish-brown. They feed mainly on jellyfish and other pelagic invertebrates. It is the most prolific species among vertebrates, females ordinary moons-fish produce up to 300,000,000 eggs at a time. Fry en of this species resemble miniature pufferfish, they have large pectoral fins, has a caudal fin and spines that disappear in adulthood. Adult moonfish are quite vulnerable. They are preyed upon by sea lions, killer whales, and sharks. In some countries, such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, their meat is considered a delicacy. In EU countries, there is a ban on the sale of products from fish of the moonfish family. Common moonfish are often caught in gillnets.
Taxonomy
The name of the genus and the specific epithet come from the word lat. mola - "millstone". The species was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Tetraodon mola. Subsequently, various generic and specific names were repeatedly assigned.
Range and habitat
The sunfish is found in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. In the eastern part Pacific Ocean these fish are distributed from Canada (British Columbia) to the south of Peru and Chile, in the Indo-Pacific region - throughout Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea , and further from Russia and Japan to Australia , New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands . In the eastern Atlantic, they are found from Scandinavia to South Africa, occasionally entering the Baltic, North and Mediterranean Seas. In the western Atlantic, sunfish can be found from the coast of Newfoundland to southern Argentina, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Genetic differences between individuals living in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are minimal.
In spring and summer, the population of common moonfish in the northwestern Atlantic is estimated at 18,000 individuals. AT coastal waters large concentrations of small fish up to 1 m long are observed. In the Irish and Celtic Seas, 68 individuals of this species were noted in 2003-2005, the estimated population density was 0.98 individuals per 100 km².
Usually these fish are caught at temperatures above 10 °C. Long stay temperatures of 12°C and below can cause them to become disoriented and sudden death. common moonfish often found in the surface layers of the open ocean; it was believed that this fish swims on its side, but there is a version that this method of movement is typical for sick individuals. It is also possible that in this way the fish warm up the body before diving into cold water layers.
Description
Antique depiction of the common moonfish (1838) as Orthragoriscus mola
Ordinary moonfish have a laterally compressed, high and short body, which gives the fish an extremely unusual look for fish. The shape of the body approaches the disk, and its length is approximately equal to the height. The pelvic girdle is reduced. In the process of evolution, the caudal fin disappeared from the moon-fish. It was replaced by a tuberculate pseudo-tail - lat. clavus. This elastic cartilaginous plate is formed by the dorsal and anal fins shifted back and devoid of spiny rays. It is supported by their branched soft rays. This tail plate acts like a paddle. It consists of 12 fin rays and ends in rounded bones.
Gill slits in the form of an oval opening, eyes and mouth are small, pronounced ventral and caudal fins are absent. The pectoral fins, located on the sides of the body, are small and fan-shaped.
The common sunfish has a very short spine relative to body length, smallest number vertebrae among fish - only 16-18, the spinal cord is shorter than the brain (in a fish weighing 1.5 tons and 2.5 m long, the length of the spinal cord is only 15 mm). The bones of the caudal fin are completely absent, and the skeleton is primarily made up of cartilaginous tissue. No swim bladder or lateral line.
Moonfish swim with the help of dorsal and anal fins, pectoral fins act as a stabilizer. To perform a turn, they release a strong jet of water from their mouths or gills. In addition, they are able to maneuver a little by changing the position of the anal and dorsal fins, similar to how birds use their wings for maneuvers.
It is believed that fish moons are able to make grinding sounds with the help of pharyngeal teeth en. The mouth ends in a well-developed beak, characteristic of representatives of the pufferfish order, formed by fused teeth. The "beak" does not allow them to close their mouths tightly.
Skeleton of a common moonfish
The thick and rather rough skin lacks scales and is covered with bony protrusions and mucus. The skin of the tail plate is comparatively softer. A cartilaginous layer 5-7.5 cm thick lies under the skin, so it is difficult to pierce it the first time even with a harpoon. The coloration of adults varies from brown to silvery-gray with a variegated pattern, which in some cases is characteristic of habitats. The dorsal surface of the body is colored slightly darker than the ventral one, which is a kind of contrasting protective coloration characteristic of pelagic fish. In addition, fish moons are able to change color, especially in case of danger.
Some sources state that internal organs fish of this species contain the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, like other representatives of pufferfish, but other authors refute this information.
Body size and weight
Adult ordinary sunfish reach an average length of 1.8 m, and the distance in height between the tips of the fins is about 2.5 m. The average weight ranges from 247-1000 kg. Larger specimens also come across: the maximum recorded length is 3.3 m, and the height, taking into account the fins, is 4.2 m.
Biology
Moonfish larva 2.7 mm long
Reproduction and life cycle
Moon fish is the most prolific fish: one female can spawn up to 300 million eggs, however total strength its small. The diameter of the eggs is about 1 mm, the hatched larvae of the moonfish are about 2 mm long and weigh less than 0.01 g. individual development like other members of their family, ordinary moon-fish go through a complex metamorphosis. The newly hatched larvae are similar to pufferfish. Upon reaching a length of 6-8 mm, the body stage begins - wide bone plates with large triangular protrusions appear, which are then crushed into small teeth with triangular protrusions, forming long spikes, then completely disappearing. At this stage, there is still a larval caudal fin, which is absent in adult fish. The potentially achievable size of adult moonfish is 60 million times the size at birth, the largest ratio among vertebrates.
In captivity, common moonfish live up to 10 years, but their lifespan is vivo not installed . Presumably, in males and females, it can be up to 16 and 23 years, respectively. In captivity, weight gain ranges from 0.02-0.49 kg per day, and the increase in length averages 0.1 cm per day. The mass of a young individual living in the Monterey Bay Aquarium increased from 26 kg to 399 in 15 months, while the fish reached a length of 1.8 m. Large size and thick skin make adult moonfish invulnerable to small predators, however, the fry may become prey for tunas and dolphins. On the big fish sea lions, killer whales and sharks attack. There have been cases in Monterey Bay where sea lions they bit off the fins of the fish moons and pushed them to the surface of the water. Probably, with the help of such actions, mammals manage to bite through the thick skin of fish. Sometimes, having tossed the moon-fish several times, the sea lions abandoned their prey, and it helplessly sank to the bottom, where it was eaten by starfish.
Food
Despite the hard "beak", the basis of the diet of ordinary moonfish is soft food, although sometimes they eat small fish and crustaceans. The basis of the food of the moon-fish is plankton, as well as salps, ctenophores and jellyfish. In addition, larvae of eels, sponges, starfish, squid, crustaceans, algae and small fish, this suggests that they feed both on the surface and in depth. The food of moonfish is generally poor. nutrients, so they have to absorb it in in large numbers.
Moon-fish swims on its side at the surface of the water
Ordinary moon-fish lead, as a rule, a solitary lifestyle, but sometimes they are found in pairs, and in places of accumulation of animal cleaners they can gather in a group.
You can often see the moon-fish lying on its side on the surface of the water. From time to time, its fins are shown on the surface - sometimes they are mistaken for shark dorsal fins. They can be distinguished by the nature of the movement of the fins. Sharks, like most fish, swim by swinging their tail fin from side to side. In this case, the dorsal fin remains motionless. Moonfish move their dorsal and anal fins like oars
Common moon fish (lat. Mola mola) - the owner of a unique figure and a real giant underwater world. She is one of the most major representatives of the Moon-fish family (Molidae) from the order Pufferfishes (Tetraodontiformes).
Relationships with people
The largest specimen, 426 cm long and weighing 2235 kg, was caught in 1908 near the Australian city of Sydney. Body unusual shape allows you to quickly distinguish this species from others marine life. Fishermen have always considered the catch of such a fish to be an exceptional event. Some of them considered the appearance of the moon-fish bad sign portending a poor catch. Before the approach of a storm, she swims in large numbers into the bays, fleeing from bad weather.
In East Asian countries, this type of fish is massively caught, because they consider its meat to be healing. In fact, it is poisonous due to the content of tetrodotoxin, which can lead to death.
According to the reviews of gourmets who have tasted the meat of the moon-fish, it has an unpleasant odor, and if it is cooked for a long time, it becomes sticky. Caviar, liver and milk are strictly forbidden to eat. Such a feast often ends in death.
Behavior
Moonfish is found in temperate and tropical waters of the seas and oceans. Traveling along with warm currents, she swims to the coastal zone of Iceland or Norway. Even with her appearance in the Mediterranean, she will not surprise anyone.
Living in the open sea, the fish prefers to be at the very surface, but sometimes dives to a depth of 300 m. This giant is distinguished by its peaceful nature and its leisurely lifestyle.
Until recently, moonfish were classified as oceanic macroplankton, but targeted observations have shown that this sloth can reach speeds of up to 3.3 km / h, and cover a distance of about 26 km per day. A giant fish cannot overcome a strong current, so it often continues its journey captured by some kind of warm current.
During movement, her body is motionless, the movement is made by one fins. Having hovered on the surface, it exposes its dorsal fin above the water surface. Sometimes it sinks to the bottom and hangs upside down. Despite its laziness, at the 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, approaches 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 algae.
In clear weather, the moon-fish approaches the surface of the water and basks in the sun. 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 goes 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 outwardly resemble pufferfish. Their body length is 1 mm. They have a large head and a well-marked caudal peduncle.
During the second stage, the larvae grow plates of bone on a small body. In this case, the caudal peduncle becomes smaller. A small part of the anal and dorsal fin are fused into the caudal.
The larva in the third stage of development already resembles an adult. For some time she was considered separate species fish moons. The size of the grown larvae reaches 1.5 cm. Their peculiar short body is flattened laterally. The tail, together with the caudal peduncle, disappears forever. Small plates with a small cone-shaped tooth grow on the skin.
Under the influence of evolutionary processes, the moon-fish lost its caudal stalk and tail. In place of the caudal fin, parts of the anal and caudal fins appeared, which fused together. She was left without ventral fins and a pelvic girdle in her skeleton. Cartilaginous tissue remained in the composition of her skeleton, and the spine consists of 16-20 vertebrae.
With low mobility, moonfish can become easy prey for larger ones. marine predators- killer whales, sea lions and sharks.
Description
The length of adults reaches 4 m, weight is not more than 2 tons. There are no jaws in a small mouth. Instead, there are bone plates that formed a powerful beak.
Short powerful body flattened laterally. The dorsal fin is very long. The pectoral fins are small.
In the moon-fish, longitudinal muscles are greatly reduced, with the help of which other fish bend their body. To set in motion the anal and dorsal fins, there are separate powerful bundles of muscles.
The color varies from gray to brown with a silvery sheen 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. Rough skin is covered with bony tubercles and small spikes like a carapace.
The average lifespan of a moon-fish under 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 about this fish "I and the World" offers to read in today's article.
Extraordinary appearance
What does the moon fish (Mola Mola) look like? Huge size and unusual appearance make it completely different from others. Part of the lunar family (Molidae) prominent representative which is. It is almost round in shape, which is why it is sometimes called the Sun.
The moon does not have a fin on its tail, as if it had been cut off. In fact, these fish have atrophied the back of the spine, so there is no tail. In this place they have a cartilaginous outgrowth that acts as a paddle-fin. Because of such round shape she received a fourth name - the Head.
The large body is strongly flattened on the sides and looks like a disc. The upper and lower fins are much larger than the pectorals. The eyes for a fish are quite large, and the mouth is small and reminiscent of 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 rather thick and rough, and two gill slits are visible on the sides. All these "lunar" features can be seen in the photograph.
Interestingly, at the moment of danger, the Moon can change its color. This feature is still possessed by flounder. And thanks to the thick skin, fishermen's harpoons even bounce off it.
The size and weight of the fish of the moon is impressive, because it grows more than three meters and about a ton. At the beginning of the 20th century, a fish 310 cm long was caught near the city of Sydney, from the upper fin to the tip of the lower one - 425 cm, and the weight was more than two tons.
Behavior and nutrition
Due to the low speed, the fish cannot catch up with the prey, so it simply sucks everything that comes 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 swim in the Black Baltic Sea and to the Scandinavian shores. Preference is given to the lower layers of habitat at a depth of up to 850 m. Older individuals do not try to fall below 200 m.
The water temperature that is comfortable for life should not be below 10 degrees, otherwise they freeze and lose their orientation, eventually dying. Sometimes they can be seen lying on the surface. Scientists believe that they are heated in this way before immersion in cold layers of water.
Interaction with people
When meeting with 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, locals 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 feel the onset of a storm, so people associate the appearance of the moon with danger.
Although considered edible and even delicacy in Taiwan, the fish has flabby and rather tasteless meat. It is also used in Chinese medicine. Sometimes they are kept in aquariums for all to see.
But in the nature of the moon, they often die because of unscrupulous people who throw away plastic bags and other debris into the water. Plastic reminds fish of jellyfish and swallowing garbage, they die of suffocation or starvation when bags clog their stomachs.
How many on our planet amazing creatures- understandable or completely unknown. The fish-moon or the Sun is an unusual and strange creature that does no harm to anyone.
“In the distant warm sea, where there are no ice floes, a sad sunfish lives. It's big and round, and only swims straight ahead, and can't dodge the sharkfish's teeth. That's why it's sad." Animated film "Umka".
Video
Moon fish - a species of the genus of moon fish of the family of the same name. These are the heaviest of modern bony fish. Reach a length of three meters. The Guinness Book of Records provides data on an individual caught on September 18, 1908 near Sydney, the length of which was 4.26 m and a mass of 2235 kg.
Ordinary moon fish live in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. They are found in the pelagic zone at a depth of up to 844 m. They have a laterally compressed disc-shaped body. The dorsal and anal fins are shifted back and form a tail plate. The skin is devoid of scales. The teeth are fused into a "beak". Pelvic fins are absent. The coloration is bluish or grayish-brown. They feed mainly on jellyfish and other pelagic invertebrates.
This is the most prolific species among vertebrates, female common moonfish produce up to 300,000,000 eggs at a time. The fry of this species resemble miniature pufferfish, they have large pectoral fins, a caudal fin and spines that disappear in adulthood. Adult moonfish are quite vulnerable. They are preyed upon by sea lions, killer whales and sharks. In some countries, such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, their meat is considered a delicacy. In EU countries, there is a ban on the sale of products from fish of the moonfish family.
In fact, the moon fish is completely harmless, because it feeds on jellyfish, ctenophores, small fish, crustaceans and other zooplankton, which, unfortunately, turned out to be next to it. This fish does not know how to swiftly maneuver and swim quickly in pursuit of prey, but only sucks everything edible that is nearby into its mouth-beak.
Because of its rounded outlines, in many languages of the world this unusual creature is called the fish of the moon, or the fish of the sun, because of the habit of basking in the sun, swimming on the surface. The translation of the German name means “floating head”, the Polish one means “lonely head”, the Chinese call this fish “upside down car”. In Latin, the most numerous genus of these fish is called mola, which means "millstone". The similar name of the fish was earned not only by the shape of the body, but also by the gray, rough skin.
Moon fish belong to the order Pufferfish, which includes pufferfish and urchin fish, with which they have much in common. First of all, these are four fused front teeth that form a characteristic non-closing beak, which gave the Latin name to the order - Tetraodontiformes (four-toothed). The family of moon-shaped, or moon-fish, (Molidae) is united unusual view these millstone-like animals. One gets the impression that at the dawn of evolution, someone bit off the back of the fish, just behind the dorsal and anal fins, and they survived and gave birth to an 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, the pelvic girdle is completely reduced, the caudal fin is absent, and instead of it there is a tuberous pseudo-tail.
Zooplankton serves as food for moon fish. This is confirmed by studies of the stomachs of fish, in which crustaceans, small squids, leptocephals, ctenophores and even jellyfish were found. Scientists suggest that the moonfish can reach a fairly large depth.
When moving, all moon fish use very long and narrow anal and dorsal fins, waving them like a bird's wings, while small pectoral fins serve as stabilizers. To steer, fish spit a strong jet of water from their mouths or gills. Despite the love to bask in the sun, moon fish live at a respectable depth of several hundred, and sometimes thousands of meters.
Moonfish are reported to be able to produce sounds by rubbing their pharyngeal teeth, which are long and claw-like.
It is believed that the lifespan of the moonfish can be about a hundred years, but much is still unknown about these amazing creatures, because they do not get along well in aquariums.
The moon fish is found in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. In the eastern Pacific, these fish are distributed from Canada (British Columbia) to the south of Peru and Chile, in the Indo-Pacific region - throughout the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea, and further from Russia and Japan to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaiian Islands. In the eastern Atlantic, they are found from Scandinavia to South Africa, occasionally entering the Baltic, North and mediterranean sea. In the eastern Atlantic, sunfish can be found from the coast of Newfoundland to southern Argentina, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Genetic differences between individuals living in the northern and southern hemispheres are minimal.
In spring and summer, the population of common moonfish in the northwestern Atlantic is estimated at 18,000 individuals. Large concentrations of small fish up to 1 m long are observed in coastal waters. In the Irish and Celtic Seas, 68 individuals of this species were noted in 2003-2005, the estimated population density was 0.98 individuals per 100 km².
Usually these fish are caught at temperatures above 10 °C. Prolonged exposure to temperatures of 12°C or below can cause them to become disoriented and suffer sudden death. Ordinary moonfish are often found in the surface layers of the open ocean; it was believed that this fish swims on its side, but there is a version that this method of movement is typical for sick individuals. It is also possible that in this way the fish warm up the body before diving into cold water layers.
Large size and thick skin make adult moon fish invulnerable to small predators, however, juveniles can become prey for tuna and dolphins. Large fish are attacked, and sharks. In Monterey Bay, sea lions have been seen biting off the fins of moon fish and pushing them to the surface of the water. Probably, with the help of such actions, mammals manage to bite through the thick skin of fish. Sometimes, having tossed the fish to the moon several times, the sea lions refused their prey, and it helplessly sank to the bottom, where it was eaten by starfish.
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