The moon is a common fish. Moon fish Record moon fish

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. adults big 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 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.

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 Atlantic Ocean sunfish 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 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. Similar superstitions also appear due to the unusual type of fish and its 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 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 a moon fish, or a 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. It seems that at the dawn of evolution, someone bit off the fish back bodies 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 others. bony fish, for example, in 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 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 moonfish 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 they caught fish 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.

When moving, all moonfish 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.

In 1908, this moon fish was caught 65 kilometers off the coast of Sydney, it became entangled in the propellers of the Fiona steamer, which prevented the ship from moving 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 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. Except 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 internal organs have the poison tetrodotoxin, like puffer fish.

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.

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: Chordates
Class: Ray-finned fish
Detachment: Pufferfishes
Family: Moon-fish (lat. Molidae (Bonaparte, 1832))

Origin of the species and description

This fish got its name due to its unusual appearance, similar in shape to the moon. It is included in the order of pufferfishes and has similar teeth and skin cover from them, the absence of the outer side of the gills. This group includes, for example, poisonous fish pufferfish, but the pufferfish is in the suborder of dogfish, and the moon is in the suborder of lunates.

The order of pufferfish is, on the whole, very unusual. These fish are characterized by non-standard body shapes, such as a ball and a square. Fish from this order easily adapt to different temperature water and live in almost all oceans.

Video: Moon fish

Another, Latin name for this fish is mola mola, which means “millstone”, i.e. round device for warming up grain. The fish is also called "sun fish" because of its round shape. In Germany, this fish is called "fish head" because of its physiology.

The moon fish is the largest representative of the bony fish, since its weight can vary within a ton or even two.

Appearance and features

Usually the length of this creature is 2.5 m in height, about 2 m in length (the maximum fish grows to 4 and 3 m).

The body of the fish of the moon is laterally flattened and it is vertically elongated, which makes its appearance even more unusual. Her body can be compared in shape to a disk - a wide plane. It also distinguishes complete absence tail fin due to underdeveloped bones of the pelvic girdle. But the fish can boast of a “pseudo-tail”, which is formed by dorsal and ventral fins shifted together. Thanks to flexible cartilaginous torches, this tail allows the fish to maneuver in the water.

An interesting fact: in 1966, a female moon fish was caught, which weighed 2300 kg. This fish is in the Guinness Book of Records.

An interesting fact: the moon fish has not only a record weight among bony fish, but also the shortest spine relative to the size of the body: only 16-18 vertebrae. Accordingly, her brain is longer than the spinal cord.

This fish does not have a swim bladder and a lateral line, thanks to which fish detect danger out of sight. The fact is due to the fact that the fish has almost no natural enemies in its habitat.

The fish is completely scaleless, and its dense skin is covered with protective mucus. However, small bony outgrowths are observed in adults, which are considered to be evolutionary "remnants" from the scales. It is not colorful - gray and brown; but in some habitats, fish are distinguished by bright patterns. In cases of danger, the moon fish changes color to a darker one, which in the animal kingdom gives a frightening look.

Where does the moon fish live?

Moon fish are predisposed to living in the warm waters of any oceans, such as:

East Pacific Ocean, namely Canada, Peru and Chile;
Indian Ocean. Moon fish is found in any part of this ocean, including the Red Sea;
Waters of Russia, Japan, Australia;
Sometimes fish swim in the Baltic Sea;
In the east of the Atlantic (Scandinavia, South Africa);
West Atlantic. Here the fish is rare, appearing more often in the south of Argentina or in the Caribbean Sea.

The warmer the water, the higher the abundance of this species. For example, in the west of the Atlantic Ocean near the coasts there are about 18,000 individuals no larger than one meter in size. The only place where the moon fish does not live is the Arctic Ocean.

Fish can descend to a depth of up to 850 m. Most often they can be found at a depth of an average of 200 m, from where they occasionally float to the surface. Often the fish that surface are weak and hungry and soon die. The water temperature should not fall below 11 degrees Celsius, as this can kill the fish.

What does the moon fish eat?

The diet of moon fish depends on its habitat. Food must be soft, although there were cases that such fish ate crustaceans with hard chitin.

Usually the moon fish eats:

plankton;
Salps;
Ctenophores;
Jellyfish;
Eels and larvae of eels;
Large sea stars;
sponges;
Small squids. Sometimes a fight occurs between fish and squid, in which the fish, due to its low maneuverability, retreats;
Small fishes. They are more common on the surface or near reefs;
Algae. Not the most nutritious option, so fish eat them in case of emergency.

Such a variety of food found in the stomachs of fish suggests that the moons feed on different levels water: both at depth and on the surface. Most often, the diet of the fish of the moon is jellyfish, but they become insufficient with the rapid growth of the fish.

These fish do not have the necessary maneuverability and cannot pursue prey. Therefore, their mouth is adapted to absorb a large stream of water into which food enters.

Features of character and lifestyle

Fish lead a solitary lifestyle, straying into flocks only during the breeding season. However, there are fish that swim in pairs for a long period of time or even for a lifetime. In flocks of fish stray only in case of accumulation of cleaner fish or gulls.

Unlike many fish, the fins of the moonfish do not move from side to side. The principle of their work is similar to oars: the fish rake water with them and slowly move at depth. But the fry of these fishes move their not yet formed fins like ordinary fish: left and right.

Compared to many fish, the moon fish swims very slowly. The maximum speed of movement is about 3 km / h, but the fish cover relatively long distances: up to 26 km per day. This is due to the fact that the vertical shape of the fish allows you to catch current flows that accelerate its movement.

By nature, these fish are phlegmatic. They do not show aggression to the surrounding life forms and are absolutely harmless to humans. Despite its impressive size, the moon fish freely allows scuba divers to swim in close proximity with them. In the event of an attack, the moon fish is not able to fight back, because it does not have the necessary dexterity, and its jaws are not adapted to biting into solid objects.

Social structure and reproduction

As already mentioned, in the bulk of the fish of the moon - loners. Due to the fact that this species is poorly understood, it is difficult to say exactly about the biology of reproduction. But scientists have found that the moon fish is the most prolific vertebrate on the planet.

The mating season is approximately summer period the time when the fish have the opportunity to go to shallow water. This is a rare case when you can see a flock of fish. Due to the fact that the fish are together in a small space, they often spawn in the same place. This is where the parental role of the fish of the moon ends.

An adult fish lays up to 300 million eggs, from which larvae appear. The larvae have a pinhead size of 2.5 mm and have a protective sheath in the form of a translucent film. In the state of the larva, the moon fish has resemblance with a relative - puffer fish. Only factor appearance is a protection for the larvae, since otherwise they are not protected by anything from predators and an aggressive external environment.

The moon fish lays its eggs in the southern part of the Atlantic waters, the Indian and Pacific Oceans. IN natural environment Habitat moon fish lives up to 23 years, rarely living up to 27. In captivity, fish grow quickly and reach large sizes, but their life expectancy is reduced to 10 years.

Natural enemies of the fish of the moon

Due to the fact that the moon fish lives mainly in deep waters, it does not have many natural enemies.

These include:

. Often this predator cannot bite through the thick skin of the fish of the moon. He catches her when she is on the surface and bites off her fins, making it impossible to move. If further attempts to bite through the fish are not successful, the sea lion leaves the prey in this state, after which the fish drowns and is left to be eaten by starfish.
Orcas. Fish-eating killer whales attack the moonfish, but cases are quite rare. Often cetaceans have no interest in this species and ignore it. The killer whales that attacked the moon fish were hungry or old for a full-fledged hunt.
. These predators willingly attack moonfish. The jaws of sharks allow you to freely bite through the thick skin of fish, and the remains go to underwater scavengers - small crustaceans and starfish. But sharks are not often at the depths of the fish of the moon, so such skirmishes are rare.
The main enemy for the fish of the moon is man. Not so long ago, fishing for this species was very popular, although the fish itself carries very little nutritional value. It was mined as a trophy, since not so long ago the moon fish was a mysterious and unexplored inhabitant of the ocean.

Population and species status

It is difficult to estimate the approximate number of moonfish in the world. It is prolific and has almost no natural enemies, so you can not worry about the population of this species. Ocean pollution is one of the few dangers to fish. Often, along with food, they suck in plastic waste, which clogs the respiratory tract and causes suffocation.

Despite the fact that the moon fish is absolutely not an aggressive creature, sometimes it collides with boats or jumps into them, which sometimes led to injuries to people and accidents. Such collisions are very common.

Until now, there is an active fishery of this fish. Their meat is not tasty, nutritious and healthy, but is considered a delicacy in Eastern countries. All parts of the fish are edible, including internal organs(some are even prescribed healing properties). moon fish continues to be explored by scientists. Priority on this moment is the study of migration processes and features of reproduction.

The heaviest modern bone fish living in ocean waters is common moonfish, a representative of the family of the moon fish of the same name. In some countries, it is also called the sun fish or head fish.

Sunfish very rarely gather in groups of more than two individuals.

Habitat geography

The moon fish lives in the waters of all oceans of tropical and subtropical latitudes; for the time of spawning, fish migrate to tropical waters. So, in the east of the Pacific Ocean, this fish lives from Canada to southern regions Peru and Chile, In the Indian Ocean, fish can be found everywhere, up to the Red Sea. In the Atlantic Ocean, they live from the Scandinavian Peninsula to South Africa. They are also found near the Kuril Islands and in the Sea of Japan.

Meet these amazing fish possible at a depth of up to 850 meters. According to scientists, almost 80% of the time these fish are at a depth of about 200 meters, and the rest of the time, they rise to a depth of 10 meters.

Moonfish in the company of divers.

Moon fish in the water column.

Appearance

Even looking at the photo of the moon fish, it is difficult to imagine how unusual it looks. Their body is rather short, high and flattened from the sides - this physique gives it unusual view, making it look like a disc. They do not have a tail fin, and the pelvic girdle is reduced. Instead of the caudal fin and them, there is a "pseudo-tail" - a cartilaginous plate formed by the spinal and cartilaginous fin. The ventral and caudal fins are absent.

The mouth of the moon fish ends in a beak formed by fused teeth. The scales of the fish are absent, and the skin is covered with cat growths and mucus. The color of adult moonfish can be from brown to gray-silver with a variegated pattern - it all depends on the habitat. The average length of adults is about 1.8 m, height can reach 3 m, and weight varies from 250 to 1600 kg.

Moonfish: front view.

A fairly large specimen of the moon fish.

The moon fish is also called the sun fish.

Nutrition and behavior

The basis of the diet of sun fish is: oceanic plankton, salps, ctenophores and jellyfish, in addition, they can eat small fish and crustaceans, eel larvae, sponges, starfish, squid, since this food is not very high in calories, the fish is forced to absorb it in huge sizes. This diet confirms that these fish can feed both on the surface and at depth.

As a rule, these fish live alone, less often in pairs. They are not considered good swimmers because they maximum speed a little over 3 km/h. Moonfish don't live in too warm water If the temperature rises to 12°C, then the fish lose their orientation in space and may even die.

The natural enemies of the moonfish are sea lions, killer whales, and sharks.

Close-up of the head of a moon fish.

Sunfish among smaller fish.

Old fish-moon.

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.

Giant moonfish.

Moon fish in the aquarium.

Moonfish at the surface of the water.

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.