Fish moon description for children. moon fish

moonfish on Latin sounds like Mola mola, popularly called the "sun" or "head". The word mola is translated as "millstone". This is one of the largest bone representatives water world of all existing and known species in the world. One of the individuals that was caught in 1908 is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Its weight was 2235 kilograms, length - 3.1 meters, and from the lower to the upper fin - 4.26 meters. Habitat geography

Range and habitat

The sunfish is found in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. In the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, 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 the Hawaiian Islands. In the eastern Atlantic, they are found from Scandinavia to South Africa, occasionally entering the Baltic, North and mediterranean sea. 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 there are large concentrations of small fish up to 1 m long. 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.

These pelagic fish are found at depths of up to 844 m. Most of the time adults spend in the epipelagic and mesopelagial at depths of more than 200 m. water column at a depth of up to 200 m.

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. 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.

Description

The moonfish (lat. mola-mola) is one of the most amazing sea creatures. Its Latin name translates as "millstone", which is quite consistent with the size and shape of this fish, which resembles a huge disc flattened on the sides. The back of the body seems to be chopped off and ends in a wavy edge, which is a modified fixed caudal fin.

It is the lack of a tail section that makes the fish so slow. The dorsal and anal fins are narrow and high, opposing each other and set far back. The head ends in a very small mouth in the shape of a parrot's beak. Jaws without teeth. The teeth are replaced by a solid enamel plate. The skin of the moon-fish is covered with small bony tubercles. The skin is unusually thick, strong and elastic - they say that even the skin of the ship cannot withstand this and the paint peels off it. The color of the moon-fish is dark gray or brown, with light spots irregular shape and different sizes.

Last September on Kuril Islands caught a moon fish in 1100 kg. The photo of this individual was on all news channels. They caught it near the island of Iturup. At first, the fishermen were delighted with such a chic catch, but due to inexperience they could not drag her into the trawler. While she was being towed for three days, she became rotten. As a result, having arrived on land, the fishermen gave the delicacy to the bears.

Lifestyle

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 show up 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. Larvae and fry of this species swim like ordinary fish.

Previously, it was believed that the moon-fish is a poor swimmer, unable to overcome a strong current, so it was attributed to the oceanic macroplankton. However, targeted observations have shown that the fish moon can swim 26 km a day, and maximum speed swimming reaches 3.28 km / h.

Sometimes sailors from the ship can watch how this harmless "monster" sways languidly on the surface of the water. But the fry and young of the moonfish swim as briskly as the rest of the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom. adults most spend time lying on their side at the bottom.

In captivity, these fish are extremely rare, because they require large and deep aquariums, moreover, they often get hurt on the walls of containers. Now the aquariums of Osaka, Monterey, Barcelona, Lisbon and Valencia can boast of having these fish in their collection. Moon-fish need protection as amazing and still little-studied representatives of the aquatic fauna.

Food

Moon-fish feed on small prey, and as inactive as they are. They feed on jellyfish, ctenophores, salps, small crustaceans and squids. Moreover, they look for food both on the surface of the water and in depth. They can tear into pieces an animal that does not fit in their small mouth, and grind solid food with their pharyngeal teeth. According to some evidence, moonfish meat can be poisonous, probably due to eating poisonous jellyfish and the accumulation of toxins in the muscles of the fish.

reproduction

The head fish is the most prolific creature in the ocean - in one spawning, the female is capable of spawning about 300 million eggs, about 0.1 cm in diameter. Newborn fry weigh about 0.01 grams and look like blowfish, however time will pass and the size of the fish will increase 60 million times - only these fish have such a huge ratio from birth to adulthood.

The average life expectancy of these fish in captivity is about 10 years. vivo 16-23 years old.

The larvae that have hatched from the eggs resemble pufferfish, then wide bone plates appear on the body of the grown larvae, which gradually turn into sharp long spikes, which then also disappear. The caudal fin and swim bladder and the teeth merge into a single plate. Despite the high fecundity, the number of this species is small and continues to decline. Except natural enemies, which prey on larvae and adults, the moonfish population is threatened by humans: in many Asian countries they are considered medicinal and are widely captured, although there is evidence that the meat of these fish contains toxins, like urchin fish and pufferfish, and in internal organs There is poison tetrodotoxin, like puffer fish.

Enemies

Despite their large size, moonfish have many enemies. Tunas can attack young individuals, killer whales and sharks like to hunt adults. Cases are known when sea lions played with these fish, biting off their fins and tossing their bodies above the water. Men in different parts world refer to the moon-fish in different ways. In Taiwan and Japan, they are considered the greatest delicacy (along with the related puffer fish) and are eaten from all parts of the body. AT European countries fishing for these species is prohibited. And in the tropics, moon fish are not eaten, but they are not protected either. Here they are considered pests that steal bait from hooks, so the fishermen cut off the fins of the caught individuals and doom them to a slow painful death in the abyss of the ocean.

Human interaction

Despite their impressive size, ordinary moon-fish do not pose a danger to humans. There were cases when fish that jumped out of the water fell into boats and knocked people down. Their habitats attract divers, they get used to the presence of a person. Encounters with moonfish are common in some regions. These collisions can lead to damage to the hulls of ships, and sometimes the bodies of these fish get stuck in the blades of large vessels (which can also provoke an accident).

These fish have tasteless flabby meat. However, in Taiwan and Japan, it is considered a delicacy, and in some regions of the Western Pacific and the South Atlantic, they are a specialized fishery. All parts of fish are used for food, including fins and internal organs. In addition, they are in demand in the traditional Chinese medicine. Due to the likely toxin content, the sale of moonfish products is prohibited in Europe. In Russia, under the trade name "fish-moon" they sell vomer fish.

Up to 30% of the catch of drift-net gillnets used for hunting swordfish off the coast of California are moonfish. In the Mediterranean Sea, the by-catch rate of this species is even higher, reaching 71–90%. In some places, fishermen cut off the fins of these fish, believing them to be useless bait thieves. Floating on the surface of the water plastic bags resemble jellyfish, the main food of the moon-fish. After swallowing garbage, fish can die from suffocation or starvation, as plastic clogs their stomach.

Much in the biology of ordinary moonfish remains unclear, their populations are counted from the air, migration is studied using tagging, and tissue genetic studies are being carried out. Occasionally moonfish are found on the shore.

The mass of the brain of this oceanic giant is 4 grams.
If you put all the eggs of the moon fish in a chain, then its length will be about 30 km.
There is a toxin in the body of these fish, so it is undesirable to eat it, and if you eat caviar, milk or liver, this can be fatal.
Moonfish are often kept in captivity, but sometimes these fish die by crashing against the walls of the aquarium.
The spinal cord of the sunfish is shorter than the head length, not more than 15 mm.
The female fish lays about 300 million eggs at a time, while about future fate don't worry about your kids at all. That is why this species has a very low survival rate of offspring.
Sunfish are very difficult to keep in an aquarium. All individuals have a very small brain when compared to body size. The fish practically does not react to the threat in any way, it is inactive and clumsy. More daring representatives of the depths, sharks and other predators often feast on it.

Video

Sources

https://ianimal.ru/topics/ryba-luna https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_moon-fish

Moon-fish are amazing and little-studied creatures, striking in their size, appearance and enormous fertility. They belong to a tiny family of only three species: the common sunfish, the sharp-tailed sunfish, and the ranchfish. This family belongs to the order Pufferfish and is related to such species as triggerfish, pufferfish and pufferfish.

Common moonfish (Mola mola).

Moon-fish owe their name to unusual shape body. In the most famous common sunfish, it is almost round; in the knapsack and sharp-tailed sunfish, it is slightly elongated and resembles a melon or a torpedo. At the same time, the body is flattened from the sides, but it does not differ in grace. The edges of the body appear torn and resemble a failed pancake. In all languages of the world, one way or another, there is a pointer to this unusual feature. In most European languages, these creatures are called moon-fish or sun-fish, the Latin name of the species is translated as "millstone", and in Polish this fish is called "self-headed", because it seems that it consists of only one giant head. The body of the moon-fish is indeed greatly shortened, but the most surprising thing is that it lacks main body movements - tail! It is replaced by a blade, devoid of its own muscular system. The body of moon-fish seems to be high due to the highly developed oval-pointed dorsal and anal fins. The pectoral fins, on the other hand, are very small. The eyes are relatively large with a good-natured, stupid expression. The mouth of these fish is also relatively small, sharp teeth form something like jaws, but for chewing hard objects unsuitable. The skin is very thick, rough to the touch due to the bony plates dotting it, but at the same time elastic.

Although the moon-fish do not shine with beauty and grace, they cannot but arouse admiration. The fact is that these are the largest of all bony fish, inferior in size only to the whale shark (cartilaginous fish). The usual size of an adult is 2-3 m in height (since they are longer vertically than horizontally), weight is about 1 ton. In the Guinness Book of Records, a moon-fish measuring 4.2 m in size and weighing 2.3 tons is registered! The only "dwarf" in this family is the knapsacks, only 80 cm long. The coloring of these creatures also emphasizes the resemblance to the moon or millstones. It is gray, sometimes with whitish spots on the sides. Interestingly, moonfish are able to slightly change color: from slate gray to almost white. These fish do not have sexual dimorphism, so outwardly males and females do not differ from each other.

The moonfish's mouth seems tiny in proportion to its huge body.

In the absence of a tail, moonfish are forced to move with the help of fins (in most fish they serve only as rudders), but this method of movement is very inefficient. Making leisurely strokes of their fins, these creatures can swim very slowly, and often even prefer to drift with the flow. Sometimes moonfish swim on their side, but they are probably sick or dying individuals. Despite their colossal size, these fish are very peaceful, phlegmatic and defenseless. They are completely unable to resist the attack of predators, and being attacked, they only passively watch how the aggressor tears their body.

A tiny fry of the moon-fish is armed with spikes.

Moonfish do not have special spawning grounds, so they spawn in the same areas where they feed. In terms of fertility, the females of these species are unparalleled: each can sweep up to 300 million eggs! This is an absolute record in the world of fish. The caviar of moonfish is extremely small and floats in the water column (such caviar is called pelagic). Thanks to this, it can be carried by currents over long distances, contributing to the spread of these slow creatures in the vastness of the oceans. Tiny fry hatched from eggs initially have large spines to protect them from predators. However, the young grow very quickly and reach a size of 1.8 m by the age of 15 months. According to observations in captivity, sunfish can live up to 10 years, life expectancy in nature has not been precisely established.

Despite their large size, moonfish have many enemies. Tunas can attack young individuals, killer whales and sharks like to hunt adults. There are cases when sea lions played with these fish, biting off their fins and tossing their bodies above the water. People in different parts of the world relate to moonfish in different ways. In Taiwan and Japan, they are considered the greatest delicacy (along with the related puffer fish) and are eaten from all parts of the body. In European countries, fishing for these species is prohibited. And in the tropics, moon fish are not eaten, but they are not protected either. Here they are considered pests that steal bait from hooks, so the fishermen cut off the fins of the caught individuals and doom them to a slow painful death in the abyss of the ocean.

Common moonfish in the Barcelona Aquarium.

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 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 it live common sunfish? 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, people often die because of unscrupulous people who throw plastic bags and other garbage 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 - (lat. Mola mola), translated from Latin as a millstone. This fish can be over three meters long and weigh about one and a half tons. The largest specimen of the moonfish was caught in New Hampshire, USA. Its length was five and a half meters, data on weight are not available. In shape, the body of the fish resembles a disk, it was this feature that gave rise to the Latin name.

The moonfish has thicker skin. It is elastic, and its surface is covered with small bony protrusions. Fish larvae of this species and juveniles swim in the usual way. Adult large fish swim on their side, quietly moving their fins. They seem to lie on the surface of the water, where they are very easy to notice and catch. However, many experts believe that only sick fish swim in 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 moonfish swims poorly. She is unable to fight the current and often swims at the behest of the waves, without a purpose. This is observed by sailors, noticing the dorsal fin of this clumsy fish.

Zooplankton serves as food for moonfish. 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.

moonfish considered very prolific, one female has up to 300 million eggs. Fish spawning occurs in the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Although this species usually spawns in the tropics, currents sometimes carry them into temperate zone warm waters.

In the Atlantic Ocean, moonfish can reach Great Britain and Iceland, the coast of Norway, and even climb even further north. AT pacific ocean in summer you can see the moonfish in the Sea of Japan, more often in the northern part, and near the Kuril Islands.

Although the moon fish looks quite menacing because of its impressive size, it is not terrible for a person. However, there are many signs among sailors South Africa who interpret the appearance of this fish as a sign of trouble. This is probably due to the fact that the moonfish approaches the shore only before the weather worsens. Sailors associate the appearance of fish with an approaching storm and rush to return to shore. Such superstitions also appear due to unusual look fish and their way of swimming.

Having met this fish in the ocean, you can be seriously scared. Still - a whopper 3-5 meters long and weighing several tons is able to inspire fear with its size and completely implausible appearance.

In fact, the moonfish 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 moon fish, or the sun fish, because of the habit of basking in the sun, swimming on the surface. The translation of the German name means "floating head", Polish - "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.

Moonfish belong to the order Pufferfish, which includes pufferfish and urchinfish, 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 by the unusual appearance of these millstone-like animals. One gets the impression that at the dawn of evolution, someone bit off the back of the body 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 of vertebrae have fewer vertebrae than other bony fish, for example, the mola mola species has only 16 of them, the pelvic girdle is completely reduced, the caudal fin is absent, and instead of it there is a bumpy pseudo-tail. The family Molidae includes three genera and five species of sunfish:

Sharptail moonfish, Sharptail mola, Masturus lanceolatus
Masturus oxyuropterus

Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Southern sunfish, Mola ramsayi

Slender sunfish, Slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis.

Almost all representatives of the sunfish family live in tropical, subtropical, and sometimes temperate waters. They all reach large sizes and have a rounded, laterally compressed head and body shape. They have rough skin, no tail bones, and a skeleton composed mostly of cartilage. Moonfish 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, colors. These fish lack a swim bladder, which disappears in the early stages of larval development.

Moonfish are the largest of the bony fish. The largest measured mola mola was 3.3 m long 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 have hatched from the eggs resemble pufferfish, then wide bone plates appear on the body of the grown larvae, which are later preserved only in fish of the genus Ranzania, in the mole and masturus, the protrusions on the plates gradually turn into sharp long spikes, which then disappear. The caudal fin and swim bladder gradually disappear, and the teeth merge into a single plate.

The most studied 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 left the larval tail, but studies have shown that in the process of fish growth, pseudo-tail rays appear after the reduction of the larval tail. Representatives of the genus Ranzania are somewhat different from other moonfish, 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, waving them like a bird's wings, and small pectoral fins while serving 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.

In 1908, this moonfish was caught 65 kilometers off the coast of Sydney, it got entangled in the screws of the Fiona steamer, which made the ship unable to move on. At the time, it was the largest moonfish ever caught, measuring 3.1m long and 4.1m wide. Photo: danmeth

Moon-fish are champions in terms of the number of spawned eggs, one female is able to lay several hundred million eggs. Despite such fertility, the number of these extraordinary fish is declining. In addition to natural enemies that prey on larvae and adults, the moonfish population is threatened by humans: in many Asian countries they are considered curative and their large-scale capture is carried out, although there is evidence that the meat of these fish contains toxins, like hedgehogs and pufferfish , and in the internal organs there is a poison tetrodotoxin, like pufferfish.

In the Atlantic Ocean, moonfish can reach Great Britain and Iceland, the coast of Norway, and even climb even further north. In the Pacific Ocean in the summer you can see the moonfish in the Sea of Japan, more often in the northern part, and near the Kuril Islands.

Although the moon fish looks quite menacing because of its impressive size, it is not terrible for a person. 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 moonfish approaches the shore only before the weather worsens. Sailors associate the appearance of fish with an approaching storm and rush to return to shore. Similar superstitions also appear due to the unusual type of fish and its way of swimming.

Scientific classification:
Domain: Eukaryotes
Kingdom: Animals
Type of: Chordates
Class: Ray-finned fish
Detachment: Pufferfishes
Family: Moon-fish (lat. Molidae (Bonaparte, 1832))