Fishes are aquatic, gill-bearing, craniates vertebrates with no digit limbs. According to researchers, there are about 34,000 varieties of species in fish. Generally, they are cold-blooded animals, but the opah species are warm-blooded. The living species of this vertebrate ranges from primitive jawless like hagfish and lampreys to cartilaginous like skates, sharks, and the rays, along with the diverse and abundant range of bony fishes.
Interesting facts about fishes
According to the researchers, the number of species in fishes outnumbers birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals put together – around 34,000 varieties of species are there in fishes. Between 1997 to 2007, around 279 new species of fish were found only in the river of Mekong of Asia alone. There are about 70 different species of flying fish that are carried by the gust of winds up to 20 feet above the ocean.
They are self-aware – the cleaner wrasse- have been found to remove the marks of their very own bodies and respond to their mirror reflections. This is a significant sign that the fishes are usually self-aware.
They are social animals – fishes are generally highly social as they form relationships and interact with each other and other species of fish. They work together during prey hunting, act as a cleaner for larger fishes, and send visual signals to each other to show the locations of their hidden prey.
Fishes are very smart – fishes generally avoid situations they know can cause them pain and seek out the experiences from such cases and rewards. They can also learn the use of tools to crack open the bivalves like mussels, oysters, and clams and food requirements. They are also known to catch their prey from out of the water surface by shooting a water stream at their prey with an accurate volume of water depending upon their targeted size.
They are excellent in communications- fishes are fabulous even though they lack vocal cords. They generally communicate through various scents, motions, sounds, and electrical pulses.
Fishes have excellent memories – certain species of fishes can recognize their humans, who reward them with food items. Other fishes like cleaner wrasse recognize their clients who get cleaned regularly, and these clients also remember their specific cleaner fish. Fishes are also good at recognizing and remembering musical tunes too.
They are extremely flexible – the sea trout in freshwater and the saltwater salmon. Both the fishes hatch only in freshwater, and then to mature into adults, they swim into the ocean. During this period, they usually undergo significant body changes during which they adapt specialized organs to survive and excel in both saltwater and freshwater.
They migrate to exceptionally far-off distances- some of the fishes like salmon migrate to very far-off distances for their spawning journey. Salmon can cover a distance of about 50km per day during their spawning period, and in total, their migration distance gets equivalent to up to 3000km from the upstream ocean to freshwater, where they would be spawning.
To sustain the ecosystems, fishes are very important- the salmons have been considered the backbone of the coastal ecosystems of the B.C. the pacific ocean salmons are semelparous, which means that after their reproduction, the adults die. Their carcasses serve as an excellent nutrient source for the resident animals of B.C and provide nutrients to the new hatching salmons.
They can change their color- depending upon the time of the year, environmental conditions, and their camouflage needs, the fishes are known to change their colors. Their colors can range across all the rainbow colors, from red and pinks to greens and blues.
They can also be a farm animal- in the aquaculture industry of Canada, along with 26 different types of species, and the finfish forms the most significant component. Along with finfish, other substantial and common fish species are the trout, arctic char, and the salmon.
They have exceptional sensory capabilities- the fishes are born with extraordinary sensory organs. They are known to detect the movements in water through a remarkable row of sensory scales of lateral lines present along their body.
The fact that fishes are not much involved in parenting is a total misconception – there is a common misconception among the people that fishes are not much interested in parenting. But in fact, it has been observed that different fish species have adapted other ways to protect their young offspring and eggs from the predators like damselfish and the male seahorse that are known to carry their eggs in a small and very special pouch.
The tetra chromatic fishes – it has been observed that most of the modern-day fishes are tetrachromatic, which means that they can see colors more vividly than humans.
Fishes are known to use tools– the fishes use tools like rocks to crack open the nuts and several other bivalves such as mussels and oysters for meeting their food requirements. In 2009, an orange dotted tuskfish was seen and filmed while repeatedly smashing mollusks on the rocks to get the clams present inside.
The smallest adult fish currently known is the Goby fish– in today’s time, the smallest known adult fish is the Goby fish, which is about a third of an inch in length. But despite being small in size, these fishes are known to be innovative. While swimming through the high tides, the Goby fish memorizes the topography of the ocean’s bottom and creates a mental map so that they remember all the pools located when the tide goes out. It is estimated that these fishes can retain this information after 40 days.
They can create art- the fishes can also create art to attract their love interests. It has been studied that the male pufferfish creates wide symmetrical and circular patterns on the sand by gently flapping his fins and occasionally decorating the designs with colored shells to attract a female. This pattern is considered an underwater bouquet.
The fishes can learn- in an experiment conducted by a team of researchers between the cleaner Wrasse and the primitives, it has been observed that the cleaner Wrasse outperformed the primates with their excellent learning abilities.
The fishes can also hunt birds- in an artificial lake of South Africa called the Schroda dam, the tigerfish have been filmed while hunting the swallows. When the swallows fly close to the water surface, the tigerfish shoots and snatches the birds out mid-air. Also, in France, a catfish in Alibi has been known to be evolved to hunt down pigeons.
The generic machinery developed by fishe – the fishes have been known to create generic machinery to make fingers. Instead, they grow their fins sensibly, which are far more suited for the environmental conditions in which they live.
The slowest fish- the slowest fish ever known are the seahorses. Their movements are incredible slow that it’s even hard to notice them. Apart from being the most lifeless fish, the male seahorse has changed their sex depending upon their environmental conditions and spawning needs.
Fishes cannot chew- the fishes are known to engulf their food items instead of chewing them. Because if they try to chew on the food items, they may probably suffocate and die as it interferes with their water passing through their gills.
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