Kaix
08-04-2006, 01:14 PM
The World's Funkiest Fish
Big Boned
The oceanic sunfish (Mola mola) is the heaviest bony fish in the world, weighing up to two tonnes with a horizontal height of up to 4m. A relative of the pufferfish, the sunfish does not have a caudal fin. Instead, it has a clavus, formed by the extension of dorsal and anal fins.
The Funky Dance
Relative to its size, the mola mola has a small mouth with fused parrot-like teeth and even smaller eyes. Looking like an oblong dinner plate with a pair of pectoral fins and a single gill flap on each side, the mola mola has one of the shortest “tails” in the fish kingdom. It propels itself by flapping its tall dorsal and ventral fins. On the surface, the harmless mola mola’s long dorsal fins have been mistaken for those of a menacing shark.
Suntanning
Mola molas ply the depths of both tropical and temperate oceans worldwide, and occasionally travel to the surface to be cleaned by seabirds and various fish. Its favourite food is the jellyfish, and its diet consists of small fish, squid, crustaceans and algae. Mola molas can change their colour rapidly from spotty to silvery, with the males sporting a more pronounced brow. Older individuals may have more wrinkles, depending on how well they have been fed.
Mercy Me
A slow swimmer, the mola mola’s primary defence mechanism is its foul taste. Heavily laden with parasites and worms (both on its skin and internal organs), its skin is at least 15cm thick, enough to deter most predators. However, molas are frequently at the mercy of attacks from sea lions in Californian waters.
Big Boned
The oceanic sunfish (Mola mola) is the heaviest bony fish in the world, weighing up to two tonnes with a horizontal height of up to 4m. A relative of the pufferfish, the sunfish does not have a caudal fin. Instead, it has a clavus, formed by the extension of dorsal and anal fins.
The Funky Dance
Relative to its size, the mola mola has a small mouth with fused parrot-like teeth and even smaller eyes. Looking like an oblong dinner plate with a pair of pectoral fins and a single gill flap on each side, the mola mola has one of the shortest “tails” in the fish kingdom. It propels itself by flapping its tall dorsal and ventral fins. On the surface, the harmless mola mola’s long dorsal fins have been mistaken for those of a menacing shark.
Suntanning
Mola molas ply the depths of both tropical and temperate oceans worldwide, and occasionally travel to the surface to be cleaned by seabirds and various fish. Its favourite food is the jellyfish, and its diet consists of small fish, squid, crustaceans and algae. Mola molas can change their colour rapidly from spotty to silvery, with the males sporting a more pronounced brow. Older individuals may have more wrinkles, depending on how well they have been fed.
Mercy Me
A slow swimmer, the mola mola’s primary defence mechanism is its foul taste. Heavily laden with parasites and worms (both on its skin and internal organs), its skin is at least 15cm thick, enough to deter most predators. However, molas are frequently at the mercy of attacks from sea lions in Californian waters.