The moon fish can grow up to 3 meters in length and reach a weight of 1410 kilograms. In the Atlantic part of the United States, a real giant was recorded, the body length of which reached 5.5 meters.

The moonfish has short body noticeably compressed at the sides, this shape is similar to that of a disc.

By the way, in Latin the name sounds like "Mola", which translates as "millstone". This fish has elastic thick skin, dotted with small bony tubercles.

Larvae and juveniles of moonfish swim like all fish, but mature specimens prefer to lie on their side near the surface of the water most of the time. At the same time, they slowly move their dorsal and anal fins, and they sometimes rise above the water. But it is believed that this behavior is inherent in old or sick fish, which is why they are easy to catch.

Generally swims badly, with strong current she cannot fight. Sometimes from the ship you can see how these giants slowly swing on the waves and float wherever they are drawn by the current of water.

The diet of the moonfish consists of zooplankton. In addition, small crustaceans, small squids, comb jellies, eel and jellyfish larvae become their prey. It is possible that large specimens can sink to depth.

Possesses excellent fertility. One female is capable of laying about 300 million eggs. Their caviar is pelagic. Spawning takes place in the tropical waters of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Sometimes adults are carried away by the warm current, so they get into temperate waters. In the North Atlantic area, they can be found in Iceland, Newfoundland and the UK. They also live in the west of the Baltic Sea and along the Norwegian coasts. In summer, they can be found in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Japan. Also in the summer they can be found near the southern islands of the Great Kuril ridge.

The moon fish is a completely harmless creature, even the largest specimens are not dangerous to humans. But despite this, locals the coasts of South Africa have a superstitious fear of her. They believe that this fish is a harbinger of misfortune, the poet, having met her, they return to the shore. Most likely, near the coast, the moonfish is only facing bad weather, so the fishermen know that a storm may begin and prefer not to risk it.

Did you know that the sun and the moon are not only in the sky? Don't believe me? Look into the underwater world - there are also "luminaries" there. Deep under water, in the seas and oceans, there is a fish called the "moon". Her appearance and gave her such a name. Take a look at the photo of the fish-moon - an underwater star, and only - it is almost completely round!

But the unique appearance is not the only "achievement" of this fish. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the moonfish is the largest bone fish On the Earth! About the size of the record holder a little later, but first - the scientific classification. The moonfish belongs to the Pufferfish order of the ray-finned class. The family and genus, which includes this fish, bear the same name "moon-fish".

Photo of the fish of the moon - underwater star

What does a Guinness book holder look like?

The largest individual ever caught in the world reached a length of 4 meters 26 centimeters, and weighed 2235 kilograms!

The flat disc-shaped body does not allow the moonfish to swim like all ordinary fish - vertically. Most of the time, this representative of the ray-finned class spends lying on its side, but not at the bottom, but closer to the surface of the water.

The moon fish has very thick skin, with such "armor" this sea inhabitant is not afraid of external blows.

And this record holder also has a very small brain, of the entire multi-ton body weight, it accounts for only 4 grams. It is for this “flaw” of its own that the moonfish received the insulting nickname “round fool” from scientists.

The moon fish is the largest bony fish on the planet!

Where does the moonfish live?

Its habitat is considered to be temperate and tropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. This huge underwater inhabitant is found off the coast of Iceland, Great Britain, Norway. In addition, fish are found in the Baltic Sea and near the Kola Peninsula. It can also be found in the Sea of ​​Japan, as well as near the Kuriles.

Underwater moon lifestyle

The round large fish prefers a solitary lifestyle. Couples of these marine life are very rare.

As already mentioned, this fish swims badly, after all, a large heavy body makes itself felt. Therefore, often, the fish-moon just floats, caught by the current, and where - she herself does not know!

The depth of the fish-moon habitat does not exceed 600 meters from the surface of the water. But often it can be seen right on the surface. This fish does not seem to care about anything, it would have to lie down, as long as no one touches it!

There is one interesting belief among people: if you see a moonfish close to the shore, then this means an imminent onset of a natural disaster. This is how an unsuspecting moon fish swinging on the waves does not even know what is a bad omen.

What does the giant fish eat?

Its main food is squid, salps, eel larvae, jellyfish and comb jellies.

How does the reproduction process of the moon fish take place?

Among the fish "kingdom", the moonfish also holds another record - it is the most prolific. Each time during spawning, this underwater inhabitant lays about 300 million eggs! But such a large amount of caviar does not yet indicate the numerous offspring of fish - most fry do not have time to grow to an adult state, becoming the prey of lovers of young meat. Spawning takes place in tropical areas.

When the little "baby" of the moon fish is born, it is 60 million times smaller than its parents! On his body, you can find outgrowths, like thorns, which disappear with age.

Natural enemies of the moon fish, who are they?

Due to the slowness of the fish, even in spite of its size, other large aquatic predators are constantly hunting for it. They swim up to the hulking fish and literally bite off a piece from it.

Moon-fish are amazing and little-studied creatures, striking in their size, appearance and colossal fertility. They belong to a tiny family of only three species: common moonfish, pointed moonfish, and knapsacks. This family belongs to the order Blowfish and is related to such species as triggerfish, pufferfish and blowfish.

Common moonfish (Mola mola).

Moonfish owe their name to their unusual body shape. In the most famous common moonfish it is almost round, in the knapsack and pointed moonfish it is slightly elongated and resembles a melon or torpedo. At the same time, the body is flattened from the sides, but does not differ in grace. The edges of the body seem to be torn and resemble a failed pancake. In all the 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 "samoglav", because it seems that it consists of only one giant head. The body of the moonfish is really greatly shortened, but the most surprising thing is that it lacks the main organ of movement - the tail! It is replaced by a blade devoid of its own muscular system... The body of moonfish seems to be high due to highly developed oval-pointed dorsal and anal fins. The pectoral fins, on the other hand, are very small. The eyes are comparatively large with a good-natured, silly expression. The mouth of these fish is also relatively small, sharp teeth form something like jaws, but they are not suitable for gnawing hard objects. The skin is very thick, rough to the touch due to the bony plates dotting it, but at the same time elastic.

Moon-fish, although they do not shine with beauty and grace, can not fail to arouse admiration. The fact is that these are the largest of all bony fish, second 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 moonfish with a size of 4.2 m and a weight of 2.3 tons is registered! The only "dwarf" in this family is knapsacks only 80 cm long. The color 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 capable of slightly changing color: from slate gray to almost white. These fish lack sexual dimorphism, therefore, externally, 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 (for most fish, they serve only as rudders), but this method of movement is very ineffective. Making unhurried flapping fins, these creatures can swim very slowly, and often even prefer to drift with the current. 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 when attacked, they only passively watch as the aggressor tears their body.

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

The tiny moonfish fry is armed with thorns.

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 unmatched: each can spawn up to 300 million eggs! it absolute record in the world of fish. Moonfish eggs are extremely small and float in the water column (such eggs are called pelagic eggs). Due to this, it can be carried over long distances by currents, contributing to the spread of these slow creatures in the vast oceans. The tiny fry hatched from the eggs initially have large thorns that protect them from predators. However, the young grow very quickly and by 15 months it reaches a size of 1.8 m. According to observations in captivity, moonfish can live up to 10 years, the life expectancy in nature has not been precisely established.

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

Common moonfish in the Barcelona Aquarium.

In captivity, these fish are extremely rare, since they require large and deep aquariums, moreover, they often injure themselves against the walls of the tanks. Now the aquariums of Osaka, Monterey, Barcelona, ​​Lisbon and Valencia can boast of the presence of these fish in their collection. Moonfish need protection as amazing and still poorly studied representatives of the aquatic fauna.

The moonfish is the largest living bony fish. Despite its impressive size and low mobility, this fish is not a commercial species, and it has almost no enemies. Why? We will find out the answers to these and many other questions today in the "best-most" heading.

The moonfish (Latin 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, reminiscent of 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 absence of the tail section that makes the fish so slow. The dorsal and anal fins are narrow and high, opposed to each other and pushed far back. The head ends in a very small parrot-shaped mouth. 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 ship's skin cannot withstand this and paint peels off from it. The color of the fish moon is dark gray or brown, with light spots of irregular shape and different sizes.

Luna fish prefers solitude, but sometimes they are greeted in pairs. Despite the fact that even large moon-fish cannot do any harm to a person, in some places off the coast of South Africa, fishermen experience superstitious fear when meeting this fish, considering it a harbinger of trouble, and hastily return to the shore. This, apparently, is explained by the fact that the "moon" approaches the shores only before bad weather, and fishermen associate its appearance with an impending storm.

The moonfish is found in tropical and temperate waters. Spawns in tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. In the North Atlantic, moonfish can be found off the shores of Newfoundland, Iceland, Great Britain, in the western part of the Baltic Sea and along the shores of Norway and the Kola Peninsula. You can often see the moonfish lying on its side on the surface of the water.

In our Far Eastern waters, it is occasionally found in the summer in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Japan and in the region of the southern islands of the Great Kuril ridge.

Moonfish also claims to be the most prolific fish: one female can throw up to 300 million eggs, the size of each egg is about 1 mm. If you put all the eggs in a row, you can get a chain 300 kilometers long. When the fish-moon fry is born, it is 60 million times smaller than the volume of its mother. The fry have a peculiar appearance: they are decorated with long spines, which subsequently disappear.

Alfred Bram wrote: “In an irritated state, the moon-fish grunts like a pig; some argue that the moonfish in the water glows, while others deny it. The meat of this fish is very tasteless, like glue, with a disgusting smell; if boiled down, it can be used as glue ”.

It feeds mainly on plankton. The moonfish is limited to sucking in prey that swims past within reach: shrimp, larvae, molluscs, jellyfish or fry.

The moonfish has almost no natural enemies - there are few predators capable of biting through such a skin. But neither the exotic appearance of the goggle-eyed "floating millstone", nor the large size save the moonfish from the rare attacks of fierce sea predators - sharks. In California waters, the latter arrange bloody massacres - they seek to bite off the fins of the moon fish, after which it becomes completely helpless and dies at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, humans also pose a serious danger to this marine life. In some East Asian countries, where moon fish, despite the foul-smelling meat, is considered a delicacy, it is caught on purpose. The moon fish cannot live in captivity and dies even under the most seemingly ideal conditions.

compiled by Alena Andreeva, Photo: lumbricus.livejournal.com

Moon fish is a species of the genus moon fish of the same name family. These are the heaviest modern bony fish. They 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 the mass of 2235 kg.

Common moon fish inhabit the tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. They occur in the pelagic zone at a depth of 844 m. They have a laterally compressed disc-shaped body. The dorsal and anal fins are pushed back and form a caudal plate. The skin is devoid of scales. The teeth are spliced ​​into a "beak". The pelvic fins are absent. The color is bluish or grayish brown. They feed mainly on jellyfish and other pelagic invertebrates.

It is the most prolific vertebrate species, with female common fish moons producing up to 300,000,000 eggs at a time. The fry of this species resemble miniature blowfish, they have large pectoral fins, a caudal fin and spines that disappear in adulthood. Adult moon fish are quite vulnerable. They are hunted by sea lions, killer whales and sharks. In some countries, such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, their meat is considered a delicacy. In the EU countries, there is a ban on the sale of fish products from the moonfish family.

In fact, the moonfish is completely harmless, because it feeds on jellyfish, comb jellies, small fish, crustaceans and other zooplankton, which, unfortunately, was 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 is nearby.

Due to its rounded shape, in many languages ​​of the world, this unusual creature is called the fish moon, or fish the sun, because of the habit of basking in the sun, floating 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". Fish have earned a similar name not only for their body shape, but also for their gray, rough skin.

Moon fish belong to the order of blowfish, which includes blowfish and fish urchins, with which they have a lot 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). The family of moonfish, or moon fish, (Molidae) is united unusual appearance these millstone-like animals. One gets the impression that at the dawn of evolution, someone bit off the fish back bodies just behind the dorsal and anal fins, but they survived and gave birth to equally strange offspring. Indeed, representatives of this family have fewer vertebrae than other teleost fishes, for example, in the species mola mola - there are only 16 of them, pelvic girdle completely reduced, the caudal fin is absent, and instead of it there is a tuberous pseudo-tail.

The food for the moonfish is zooplankton. This is confirmed by studies of fish stomachs, in which crustaceans, small squids, leptocephals, ctenophores and even jellyfish have been found. Scientists suggest that the moonfish can reach a fairly large depth.

All moon fish, when moving, use very long and narrow anal and dorsal fins, flapping their wings like a bird, while small pectoral fins serve as stabilizers. To steer, fish spit a strong stream of water from their mouths or gills. Despite the love to bask in the sun, moon fish live at a venerable 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 life span of a moonfish can be about a hundred years, but much about these amazing creatures is still unknown, because they do not get along well in aquariums.

Moon fish are 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 Hawaii. In the eastern Atlantic, they are found from Scandinavia to South Africa, and occasionally enter the Baltic, North and Mediterranean seas. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, moonfish can be found from the coast of Newfoundland to southern Argentina, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Genetic differences between individuals living in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are minimal.

In spring and summer, the population of common fish moons in the Northwest Atlantic is estimated at 18,000 individuals. In 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 recorded 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 and below can cause disorientation and sudden death in them. Common 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 immersion in the cold water layers.

Large size and thick skin makes adult fish moons invulnerable to small predators, but juveniles can become prey for tuna and coriphene. On large fish attack, and sharks. In Monterey Bay, there have been cases of sea lions biting off the fins of the moons 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 a fish to the moon several times, the sea lions abandoned their prey, and it helplessly sank to the bottom, where it was eaten by the starfish.