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How does it look like?
Oval-shaped body, very short, tall and laterally compressed. The mouth is very small and has teeth welded in plates that give it the shape of a beak. The eyes are round and large. The gill opening is reduced to a hole just in front of the pectoral fins. It has no true tail but clavus (tail-like structure formed from short and high dorsal and anal fin rays), wavy in shape. It has no ventral fins and the pectoral fins are small, rounded and face upwards. It has no scales and the skin is very rough. In general it is gray/brown in color and the sides and ventral side are lighter. It has no lateral line. It can reach a length of 3 meters and weigh more than 1000 kg. The maximum documented weight has been 2300 kg. Including the fins, this fish is taller than long.
Where does it live?
It lives in the open sea, in warm waters, from surface to 300-400 meters deep. It is solitary and sometimes comes close to the shore to be cleaned by small specialized fish. When it is very close to the surface, it allows itself to be dragged by the current and pulls its dorsal fin out of the water. They are slow swimmers and use their dorsal and anal fins to propel themselves, but do not move their bodies because their musculature is quite atrophied.
How does it feed?
They feed on plankton fauna, such as jellyfish, fish, etc. Sometimes they swim down to the bottom of the sea and eat algae.
How does it reproduce?
It presents a small sexual dimorphism since males have more prominent jaws than females. A very large female can lay up to 300 million eggs. They go through three larval stages, the last of which presents numerous spines on the skin that will get lost when they become adults.
Is a confusion possible?
There is no other fish in the Mediterranean with the same or similar body shape. In other seas or oceans you can find a similar species, Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776).
Curiosities
· It has no commercial value because its meat is poisonous.
· A Catalan proverb of fishermen says: "it is not a good boat if it does not bounce three times" (due to the Catalan name bot), as they say it jumps out of the water, but there are several theories as to why they approach the surface. It is believed that older individuals do it and that younger ones swim deeper; that they sunbathe or that they watch out for possible dangers.
· Adults do not have a swim bladder. Compared to their body size, their brain is very small (weighs only 4 grams in a 200 kg individual).
Taxonomy
Phylum: Cordata, Subphylum: Vertebrata, Class: Osteichthyes, Gigaclass: Actinopterygii, Order: Tetraodontiformes, Family: Molidae |
