10 Interesting Fish Facts You Might Not Know

The earth is covered with water by 71%. Fish are the indigenous inhabitants of these expanses of water, which, over billions of years of evolution, have fully adapted to environmental conditions. They learned to get oxygen from the water, hunt and find food, live in various types of water bodies, attack and disguise themselves.

At the moment, scientists know more than 35 thousand species of fish. But this is not the limit, because every year more and more new species are discovered, surprising with their diversity. A whole branch of science called ichthyology is devoted to the study of these creatures. Today’s rating is dedicated to the most interesting facts about fish.

10 New species are constantly emerging

Thanks to ichthyologists, every year mankind discovers about five hundred inhabitants of rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.. The great work that scientists do every year and every day is bearing fruit. Around the world, there are reports of the discovery of previously unknown species of fish.

For example, in Tasmania alone, in 2018, one hundred new underwater inhabitants were entered into the reference books. In addition to new ones, the list of existing ones is also expanding. So, a new species of sharks was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, and a variety of puffer fish was found in Japan.

9. Sizes from 7,9 mm to 20 m

In addition to diversity, fish are able to surprise with their size. Everyone knows how huge the ferocious predators of the seas – sharks – can be. The largest individual reaches twenty meters. We know this giant as the whale shark., she loves to bask in tropical waters and does not pose a danger to humans. Her diet includes only plankton and she is indifferent to human meat.

Despite its formidable size, it is a fairly friendly fish and will even allow an impudent diver to ride on its back.

The smallest fish, whose body has a modest size of 7,9 mm in length, lives in Indonesia.

8. More than half of vertebrate species are descended from fish

Evolution is a very long, mysterious and complex process. Living beings adapted to new living conditions, acquired or lost abilities. It is known that more than half of vertebrate species are descended from fish. Most likely, this happened in the Paleozoic, which began 541 million years ago. This era lasted for almost 300 million years.

Fish learned to “walk” on the seabed, under water, and, having come out on land, only continued a long evolutionary path.

7. Three types of reproduction

Reproduction is characteristic of all living beings on the planet. The simplest formulation of this complex process is the reproduction of one’s own kind. Usually, a species has one specific type of reproduction. But fish surprise us in this as well, having three different types of self-reproduction..

The first type, familiar to us, is bisexual reproduction. With it, it is easy to determine who is male and who is female. The roles are distributed clearly, each sex performs only its reproductive functions.

The second type is hermaphroditism. In this case, more surprising things happen to us and the sex of the individual changes during life. Having been born, for example, as a male, a fish, by a certain age, is rebuilt and then lives and functions as an absolutely full-fledged female.

The third type is called gynogenesis. This is a process in which the spermatozoon performs only the function of starting the reproductive system, and is not a prerequisite for reproduction.

6. Some fish can change sex

Pisces do not need surgery to change sex. Some species have a special body structure in which their sex changes throughout life.. Such a system prevails, for example, in groupers and wrasses.

5. The seahorse is the only fish that swims vertically

Skates are small marine fish, whose genus includes up to 57 species. Seahorses got their unusual name because of the resemblance to a chess piece. Warm water lovers live in the tropics and are afraid of cold water, which can kill them.

But their most remarkable feature is that they do not move like everyone else. If all fish swim strictly horizontally, then seahorses stand out from the total mass, moving exclusively vertically..

4. Patti is a long-lived eel, age 88

Another amazing fish that looks a lot like a snake is called the European eel. This snake-like fish is even capable of covering short distances on land.

For a long time, the eel was considered a representative of viviparous fish because of the inability to find fry and spawning grounds. One of the representatives of this species was caught in 1860 in the Sargasso Sea and placed in a museum aquarium in Sweden. The approximate age at capture was three years. This living exhibit was even given a very cute name – Patty. The most surprising thing in his biography is that he died only in 1948, becoming longest-lived fish, living as long as 88 years.

3. The sailboat sails at speeds up to 100 km/h

A fish with a beautiful name sailboat lives in tropical and temperate waters of all oceans existing on Earth. It got its name thanks to the dorsal fin, very similar to the sail of a ship. The fin can be twice as high as the fish itself.

The sailboat reaches three meters in length and weighs up to one hundred kilograms. The fish is a real speed record holder, gaining up to one hundred kilometers per hour. Streamlining of the body, coupled with a retractable fin and vigorous tail movements, helps to achieve such high values.

2. Piranha is the most dangerous fish

A fish that terrifies many people and has become the hero of horror films and thrillers. Piranha is rightfully considered the most dangerous fish that lives on Earth.. The name comes from the Indian language and literally translates as sawfish. These monsters have more than 50 varieties, but all live only in the waters of South America.

Exactly imitating sharks, piranhas are able to feel the blood in the water. even if it’s just a drop at a great distance from them. The powerful jaws of these monsters are capable of tearing out pieces of meat from the victim, and a flock of such fish will tear apart cattle in a matter of minutes. But alone, the fish are very shy and can lose consciousness from a loud and sudden noise.

1. One of the early symbols of Christianity

One of the earliest symbols of Christianity was the familiar fish.. The fact is that, translated from the ancient Greek language, the fish sounds like “ichthys”, which is an abbreviation. “Ichthys” is deciphered as a phrase, the approximate translation of which means “Jesus Christ God Son Savior“.

The appearance of such a mysterious message is associated with the persecution of early Christians by the Romans. The laws of that time prohibited the promotion of Christianity, the open practice of this religion, the creation and wearing of symbols that indicated belonging to the faith.

The image of a fish was a secret sign indicating a person’s religion. The symbol was applied to clothes, body and dwellings, and was also depicted in caves where secret services took place.

The fish often appears in scripture and in many parables. The most famous story related to fish tells how a huge number of hungry people ate one fish. In that era, Christians were also compared with fish, who followed the stream of faith in the waters of eternal life.