The ocean sunfish has various superseded binomial synonyms, and was originally classified in the pufferfish genus, as Tetraodon mola. The Chinese translation of its academic name is fān chē yú 翻車魚, meaning “toppled wheel fish”. In Swedish, Danish and Norwegian it is known as klumpfisk, in Dutch klompvis, in Finnish möhkäkala, all of which mean “lump fish”. In Polish, it is named samogłów, meaning “head alone” or "only head", because it has no true tail. In German, the fish is also known as Schwimmender Kopf, or “swimming head”. Its common names in Dutch, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Russian, Greek, Norwegian, and German ( maanvis, peixe lua, Poisson lune, pez luna, peix lluna, Pesce luna, рыба-луна, φεγγαρόψαρο, månefisk and Mondfisch, respectively) mean “moon fish”, in reference to its rounded shape.
Its common English name, sunfish, refers to the animal's habit of sunbathing at the surface of the water. Its scientific name, mola, is Latin for "millstone", which the fish resembles because of its gray color, rough texture, and rounded body. Many of the sunfish's various names allude themselves to its flattened shape. It has a flattened body and is as tall as it is long. The ocean sunfish is the heaviest of all bony fishes. The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is the type species of the genus. Sunfish are frequently caught in gillnets.Ī member of the order Tetraodontiformes, which also includes pufferfish, porcupinefish, and filefish, the sunfish shares many traits common to members of this order. In the EU, regulations ban the sale of fish and fishery products derived from the family Molidae. Sunfish are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, including Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Sunfish fry resemble miniature pufferfish, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin, and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.Īdult sunfish are vulnerable to few natural predators, but sea lions, killer whales, and sharks will consume them. Females of the species can produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate, up to 300,000,000 at a time. Sea jellies and salps, once thought to be the primary prey of sunfish, make up only 15% of a sunfish's diet. Sunfish are generalist predators that consume largely small fishes, fish larvae, squid, and crustaceans. Sunfish can be as tall as they are long when their dorsal and ventral fins are extended.
It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally.
The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the world. Adults typically weigh between 247 and 2,000 kg (545 and 4,409 lb). The ocean sunfish or common mola ( Mola mola) is one of the two heaviest known bony fish in the world, the other being the southern sunfish ( Mola alexandrini) of the same genus.
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