Have you heard these fishy facts before?
When it comes to fishy facts we mean those about these animals and not how you can stay safe from people who seem shady!
While you need to be able to stay safe when it comes to interacting with certain fish species too, these are just some of the facts about these animals that are going to surprise you.
We are all used to seeing fish tanks and even the edible kinds of fish, but otherwise, we do not think much about them besides when we may spot one in a river or lake, or even at the pet store.
And the fun fact is that they are more elusive than we would think at first glance, as we know very little about the ocean and its residents! This is why we have brought you some of our favorite fishy facts about these animals!
Some of them may end up changing the way you think about these animals that many of us do not think of as exotic, but that could completely change after you get to read more about our fishy friends!
What do you know about fish? Did any of these facts surprise you? Share your answers in the comments!
Certain fish can breathe on land.
We all know that fish cannot breathe on land, but it seems like these animals cannot stop evolving. Their gills are made to absorb the oxygen from the water, but fish do not have lungs, so what happened there?
It seems like about 450 species of fish have learned how to also breathe on land, but not in the way you may think.
Some of the fish, like the African lungfish, have adapted physiologically so that they can breathe on land; their swim bladder has been modified, and it now also functions as a lung, so it sustains them when they have to burrow in mud during drought times.
Likewise, snakeheads use a primitive lung so that they can live on land for up to four days. Other famous land fish also include the mudskippers, which are very active in swamps, and they achieve breathing through their mouth lining and skin.
It turns out our fishy friends are way more peculiar and interesting than we thought they could be, so if you see one skipping on land, just keep going.
There are more than 36,000 species of fish.
The world-famous saying “there’s other fish in the sea” is not exactly wrong. However, a breakup would not be the best time to let someone know there are more than 36,000 species of fish out there.
We want our close ones who are suffering to have hope, but when you put it into perspective, there are about 3.5 trillion fish out there in the wild
While we are used to actively knowing just a couple of fish out there that are more normal to us, be it that it is the ones that we eat or the ones that we keep as pets or see in the wild, there are way more fish out there than we may think.
There’s way more fish than people and even other animal species out there, and in the end, the fact that all in all we know so little about them is a bit terrifying!
Dinosaurs? Fish are older than 500 million years.
Fish are the planet’s first vertebrates, and while they may seem small and puny to some, they are actually an important part of the evolutionary ladder.
They account for some of the earliest fossils ever discovered, with some dating back over 500 million years. They were called agnathans, which were jawless fish that lived in that timeframe.
These old fish have not managed to evolve enough in order to keep up with the rest of the fish as they evolved; while they have impressive spikes and armor, the jawed fish have mainly phased out these jawless fish from existence.
In modern times, most fish fall into one of two main categories: bony fish (known as Osteichthyes) and cartilaginous fish (known as Chondrichthyes), which are the likes of rays and sharks.
There are still a couple of jawless fish around, but they are represented by hagfish and lampreys, and they are not that commonly known by all of us!
All shapes and sizes!
Fish do come in all shapes and sizes, and they can be massive, while there are also some small fish that are almost impossible to see.
While the smallest fish around is represented by an infant fish, with the trout babies being about 7 millimeters and weighing less than 1 milligram, the biggest fish around is absolutely massive!
You may have heard about some river fish becoming so big people think they are monsters, but the true giants of the waters are the whale shark and the sunfish.
Known as the biggest fish in the world, the whale share can in general go over 40 feet in length and weigh up to 20 tons in weight. However, some researchers report extreme sizes of about 65 feet and around 42 tons for some massive numbers!
Likewise, if we are looking at bony fish, the sunfish can easily end up reaching 10 feet and about 2.5 short tons (around 5,000 pounds)!
From how large these fish are, it’s mind-boggling how easily you could blink and miss the smallest ones!
Fish speak with one another!
Yes, they do communicate!
While we may think such a thing is not possible, a lot of animals have adapted over time, and they have a wide range of methods in order to communicate with one another.
Of course, it is not going to be anything like in “Finding Nemo,” but you are going to find various means of communication between all these massive numbers of fish.
The easiest way in which they communicate is to transmit information to others about mating, schooling, or even territorial marks, and they end up doing so by emitting light or electrical pushes.
Otherwise, researchers have slowly unveiled a lot of ways in which fish end up communicating that are closer to what we may think of as communication.
About 800 species of fish have been observed expressing themselves through moans, grunts, barks, hoots, and groans!
Did you know you can tell the age of a fish by its rings?
We do this for trees, you but can also do it for fish! It may sound weird, but this is a way in which you can easily pinpoint how long a bony fish has lived!
Bony fish have ear stones, which are known as otoliths, and they end up growing at different paces through the life of a fish, but in the end, this is where you can tell for how long they are.
The otoliths end up exhibiting light-dark contrasting rings that are similar to the tree rings, which form as calcium carbonate accumulates on the ear as a fish lives.
Over a whole year, the fish ends up gaining one ring, and it can tell researchers more than just how old the fish is! Depending on the opacity you can tell how sparse or abundant the food sources have been!
With ever-growing fish, the scales may tell us a similar story. Fish scales actually produce an alternating set of rings as well as the fish lives and the thickness varies depending on the temperature of the water.
Scientists have since used them and their usual behaviors to see how the changes in the water are reflected and paired well; you can easily determine a year of its life and thus count to their actual age!
If you’re fascinated by the ocean and its creatures and you want to share all that you know with the youngsters in your family, we recommend you get them this book!
The ocean is teeming with a variety of fascinating and perilous creatures, yet few of us consider them to be in our immediate vicinity. If you’re ever curious about what dangerous ocean creatures exist in the USA, check out this article: Meet the most dangerous ocean creatures around the USA.
