#fun fish facts

[eddieintheocean]

hello! do you have any whale shark/basking shark/megamouth shark facts?

this has been sitting in my inbox for a whole 2 months and i apologise

whale shark:

whale sharks are Fish, the largest fish infact

they have Teeth Eyes (dermal denticles: which are enamel plates that help protect their eyes)

basking shark:

the 2nd largest Fish!

they may display courting rituals! small groups have been seen swimming in circles nose to tail during summer months (these rituals may potentially last for up to 6 hours)

megamouth shark:

it was discovered in 1976, and around 120 specimens have been observed and studied

it was originally assumed that the white band of the megamouth's lip was bioluminescent, however a study in 2020 disproved this, suggesting that it was actually highly reflective due to denticles, and the light was reflected from the planktonic prey

[fredlikesbreakfast]

in the tumblr straight up 'trying to learn it'. and by it well haha lets justr say. fun fish facts.

[fisharenotreal]

trick or treat in my inbox for a fun fish fact !

[protectoursharks]

The shape of a fish's caudal tail can tell you a lot about how fast the fish moves! A rounded tail is the slowest and a lunate tail is the fastest! The lunate tail has the most optimal ratio of high thrust and low draw, making it the fastest.

Ichthyology Notes 2/?

[shastafirecracker]

I just got to see some of these guys at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science! If I could add a video file to a reblog I would share the filter feeding in action… it was super cool to watch and made me think of the creature design for Jean Jacket from Nope.

Whats the COOLEST fresh water fish you know 🐟🫶

THE COOLEST FW FISH:

There are a lot of really amazing fw fish in the amazon basin, and I love giant catfishes from around the world. I'm based in North America though, so my attention goes there.

We have a pretty cool fish here...

 American Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), family Polyodontidae, order Acipenseriformes, found in various parts of the Mississippi River basin

This species is the only member of this family that still exists. They are most closely related to sturgeons. This order, Acipenseriformes, is considered one of the most evolutionarily primitive groups of ray finned fishes.

They do not have scales, and their skeleton is mostly cartilaginous.

They are filter feeders. Their heads and rostrums are covered with thousands of sensory receptors, which help them locate zooplankton swarms.

They are considered “vulnerable” due to overfishing, habitat degradation and destruction, and pollution.

photograph via: US Fish & Wildlife Service

[swagvo1d]

[feelingautistic]

Exciting news for the cute shark lovers of the world! We finally have a recorded sighting of a baby great white shark, likely only a few hours old.

The question of where great white sharks give birth still remains a mystery to this day but this footage may suggest the coasts of California, where the footage was taken, are a site where these sharks give birth.

[marinememes]

My coworker took a full frontal picture of the arapaima at work and sent this in our group chat

[arn9tails]

Dunno if someone already responded to this

(also am no professional, am just, a silly lil creature who likes learning so take with your dietary recommendation of salt)

But yes! In fact they drink the water around them, especially if they are salt water fish. Salt water fish are constantly running water through their system. Not entirely beneficial, since the salt also dries them out, even if they are consuming water. This causes them to need to drink nonstop. If you put a salt water fish in fresh water they would drink themselves to death, and if you put a fresh water fish in salt, they'd die from drying out from the salt

(hope I got that right!)

do fish get thirsty? real answers only pls

[loser-user-noaccuser]

Pilots are allowed to have naps in Australia and Canada under strict conditions (have to tell all air staff that they are napping, can only nap up to 40 minutes and have to be awake 30 minutes before descent) they call it a Controlled Rest in Position or CRIP

(Source: No Such Thing as a Fish Podcast)

[minhtblue]

[colour of your night playing in the bg] a.k.a. i wish you could go fishing

[actualsoyboy]

Um?

[plaguedocboi]

THE TUNA IS MY BEST FRIEND BUT UNFORTUNATELY THEY ARE NOT ENTIRELY ENDOTHERMIC

Several species of highly active pelagic fish (tuna and mackerel sharks specifically) have evolved the ability to “warm up” their blood. But these fish are only warming up part of their bodies. They localize the heat to the brain, eyes, and swimming muscles to allow themselves to remain active and hunt even in colder water. And the text is slightly outdated, it’s recently been discovered that they heat themselves using specialized blood vessels to direct heat in these body parts. Thus, they are somewhere between warm and cold blooded (lukewarm blooded?)

The opah, on the other hand, has these specialized blood vessels right next to their gills. This allows them to heat the cold water as it enters, and thus keep their entire body warm! They are the only fully endothermic fish.

This YouTube thumbnail has the same energy as the educational sunfish memes. Can we have some educational opah memes in the chat

[amnhnyc]

On the hunt for eggs today? The banded jawfish (Opistognathus macrognathus) has a mouthful! Banded jawfish dads-to-be carry eggs in their mouth. This behavior—which helps protect offspring from predators—is known as mouthbrooding. To attract females, males do a “dance” that involves a series of sweeping movements and fin-flashing. They even open their mouths as wide as possible to boast their mouthbrooding potential!

Photo: coralreefdreams, CC BY 4.0, iNaturalist

[protectoursharks]

There are four types of fish scales!

Cycloid scales are thin, overlap, and flexible. They're found on primitive teleosts (like minnows and carp).

Ctenoid scales have small, backwards pointed scales (known as cterns) make the fish more hydrodynamic and faster. They're found on Advanced Ctenoids (like perch and sunfish).

Ganoid scales are thick, diamond-shaped, and mostly non-overlapping. They're found on Chondrostei (like sturgeons and paddlefish).

Placoid scales are spikey and tooth-like with nerves. These are found on Chondrichthyes (like sharks and rays).

Ichthyology Notes 3/?

[montereybayaquarium]

Would you still love us if we were a worm? 🥺👉👈

What’s cuter than sharing? Sharing is caring, after all, and no other muddy buddy does that better than the fat innkeeper worm (Urechis caupo). These seafloor superheroes burrow in the soft sediment of estuaries and earn their name by providing shelter, food, and even running water for their fellow members of the muck, like pea crabs, ghost shrimp, scale worms, and arrow gobies. They’re also a source of food for many other animals including leopard sharks and sea otters!