Page 369 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

BONY FISHES 367

ORDER TETRADONTIFORMES from side to side. Its common name
comes from the fish’s habit of drifting
Ocean Sunfish in surface currents while lying on its
side. It also swims upright with its
Mola mola dorsal fin sticking above the surface.
LENGTH The ocean sunfish has no scales, but
Up to 13 ft (4 m) its skin is very thick and stretchy. Like
WEIGHT the porcupinefish (see below, left), to
Up to 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) which it is related, the ocean sunfish
DEPTH has a single fused tooth-plate in each
0–1,600 ft (0–480 m) jaw, but it feeds mainly on soft-bodied
DISTRIBUTION Tropical, subtropical, and temperate jellyfish and other slow-moving
waters worldwide invertebrates and fish. Females produce
the most eggs of any bony fish, laying
ORDER TETRADONTIFORMES HUMAN IMPACT The ocean sunfish is the world’s up to 100 million in the open ocean.
heaviest bony fish and has a distinctive Lone fish make grating noises with
Star Pufferfish FUGU FISH disklike shape. Instead of a caudal fin, pharyngeal (throat) teeth,
it has a rudderlike structure (clavus) and this may help
Pufferfish produce tetrodotoxin,
Arothron stellatus formed by extensions of the dorsal them to make
LENGTH a lethal poison that is stronger than and anal fin rays, and it swims by contact with
Up to 4 ft (1.2 m) cyanide and for which there is flapping its tall dorsal and anal fins potential mates.
WEIGHT currently no antidote. In spite of
Not recorded this, these fish are eaten in Japan
DEPTH as a delicacy called “fugu.” The
10–200 ft (3–60 m) poison is in the skin and some
DISTRIBUTION Tropical reefs in Indian Ocean and of the internal organs, and only
south Pacific licensed chefs, who have been
specially trained, are permitted to
Compared with most other pufferfish, prepare this dish. Pufferfish from
the star pufferfish is a relative giant. Its the genus Takifugu are considered
black-spotted skin is covered in small to be the best eating. A few
prickles and, if threatened, it will people die every year from eating
swallow water and swell up to an even fugu, and the Emperor of Japan is
larger size. At night, it searches out officially barred from eating this
hard-shelled reef invertebrates and delicacy for his own protection.
crushes them with powerful jaws that
have fused, beaklike teeth.

When a porcupinefish is
ORDER TETRADONTIFORMES
frightened, it pumps water
Porcupinefish into its body until it looks
like a prickly soccer ball. Few
predators are large enough or
Diodon hystrix
LENGTH brave enough to swallow a fish
Up to 35 in (90 cm) in this state. Left to itself, the
WEIGHT porcupinefish deflates and its long
Up to 6 1 / 2 lb (3 kg) spines lie flat against its body.
DEPTH During the day, it hides in caves and
6–160 ft (2–50 m) reef crevices, emerging at night to
DISTRIBUTION Tropical and subtropical waters of feed on hard-shelled invertebrates
Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans such as gastropod mollusks.
prominent
eye

erect OCEAN LIFE
spine