sunfish

[For the right pronunciation, please click here.]

[A]

(also called ‘ocean sunfish’ and ‘Mola mola’/ ‘common mola’)

a kind of fish – salt water fish – related to the puffer fish and porcupine fish –large with a fish head, very short round tail, oval-shaped because flattened laterally; in brown, silvery-grey or white, large fins; size: 8-10 feet long, 12 feet high, from the tip of one fin to the tip of the other, and weight: 1 ton (1000 Kg.) (some species can grow to 11 feet in length, 14 feet across and 2,300 Kg.); feeds on (eats) mostly jellyfish, zooplankton (= very small water animals), shellfish – mostly squid, etc. and small fish; lives for 10 years in captivity; found in the temperate and tropical waters of the world,

Special Features:

(back part is missing!)

Ocean sunfish or ‘Mola mola’ are a very peculiar fish – they have no scales, but have tough skin like a sandpaper, and no tail fin!  The Germans call it ‘swimming head’ because its body seems to be incomplete, without the usually fish-like back part!

Though they do not have the back part of their body, they are known to be the heaviest of all bony fish (fish with bones)!

As the sunfish do not have their tail part, they swim with the help of their side fins (most other fish swim with the movement of their tail fins and tail  part).

They are the largest bony fish.  And they are known be the most fertile of all fish – a four-feet female is estimated to contain 300 million eggs!!

The ocean sunfish has the shortest spinal cord –- a 7 feet long ‘Mola mola’ may have only 1 inch long spinal cord — shorter than its brain!

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[B]

(also ‘shell cracker’)

a kind of fish – bony, finned & scaly – related to the carp and bass – medium-sized with laterally compressed head and body, small mouth, the back fin with 10-12 spires raised like a crest, different species in different colours, size: from 6 inches to 1 foot long, and weight: from 500 grams to 1 Kg; feeds on insects, small fish, such as minnows, and shellfish; lives for 7-9 years; about 30 species found in North American rivers and lakes,