Ocean Sunfish Mola mola
The ocean sunfish is the world's heaviest bony fish and has a distinctive disklike shape.
Ocean Sunfish or Mola mola
Photo by Steve Mirick and used with his permission.
Your first awareness of this strange creature often seen on pelagic trips is a dark fin wobbling back and forth on the surface.
Ocean sunfish
ON EXHIBIT: Open Sea
At the Aquarium
Video: Life in the slow lane Visit our Outer Bay exhibit during one of the regularly scheduled feedings and you'll see a blur of motion as tunas and bonitos flash through the water, ...
Ocean sunfish can become so infested with skin parasites, they will often invite small fish or even birds to feast on the pesky critters.
Molas, Ocean Sunfishes
Bibliography
The Fish Anatomy Menu
Anatomy ...
A Southern Ocean Sunfish on the surface
A Southern Red Scorpionfish at Tathra Wharf
A Southern Ribbonfish on the beach
A Southern Roughy at North West Solitary Island
A Southern Smiler caught off Norah Head Lighthouse ...
The puffers and their allies, the boxfish, the porcupinefish, and the ocean sunfish or headfish, form an odd group (order Tetraodontiformes).
The common mola is also called the ocean sunfish. The name refers to the fishes' habit of lying on the surface with one broad side exposed to the sun. They do this to warm up before diving to hunt.
Threats to Survival
: Predators include sea turtles, ocean sunfish, spade fish, tuna, swordfish, and other large fish. Humans, particularly in some Asian countries, capture and eat dried non-venomous jellyfish.
Fire Salamander, Saltwater Crocodile, Southern Cassowary, Black-and-rufous Giant Elephant Shrew, Ocean Sunfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia ...
How many eggs can an ocean sunfish lay at one time?
D. How many bones are in a shark's body?
E. About how many suckers does a common octopus have?
F. About how many miles per hour can a sailfish swim?
G. How many inches long is an adult pygmy shark?
Extant species can range in size from Paedocypris, at 8 millimetres (0.31 in), to the massive Ocean Sunfish, at 2,300 kilograms (5,100 lb), and the long-bodied Oarfish, to at least 11 metres (36 ft).
Mola mola, Ocean Sunfish
Monocentris japonica, Pineconefish
Montastraea cavernosa, Great Star Coral
Montastraea annularis, Boulder Star Coral
Morus bassanus, Northern Gannet
Morus capensis, Cape Gannet
Morus serrator, Australian Gannet ...
 See also: Sunfish, Shark, Whale, Mola, Tuna
  
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