Dwarf fish and giant fish. Among the fish there are real dwarfs and monstrous giants Dwarfs and giants of cartilaginous fish

Dwarf fish and giant fish
In the class of fish, as in other classes of animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, there are species characterized by different sizes. Among the fish there are real dwarfs and monstrous giants.

In the Philippine Islands, between the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, there is a tiny lake goby, mystichthys, which is 1–1.5 centimeters long. This goby is found in large flocks. The inhabitants of the islands catch it and eat it. The mystichthys goby is considered the smallest animal of all vertebrates in the world.

There are dwarf fish in European waters, in particular in Soviet waters. In the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas, Berg's goby is found, the length of which barely reaches three centimeters. This is the smallest vertebrate animal within the USSR. In the figure, the goby is shown enlarged almost 5 times.

In our waters, sea and fresh, there are many fish measuring 5–10 centimeters in size. The Baikal goby usually has a length of 8 centimeters, and only occasionally specimens up to 14 centimeters long are found. This fish swims among the stones most of the time, here it feeds, and here it reproduces.

Small sized stickleback fish. There is a lot of it in lakes, rivers and brackish coastal areas of the seas. The Aral nine-spined stickleback is only 5–6 centimeters in length. There are so many sticklebacks in our waters that they could become a commercial fish. In Finland and other Baltic countries, stickleback is caught and processed into fat for technical purposes and flour for livestock and poultry feed.

Small species of fish include some herrings, minnows, bleaks, verkhovka, gudgeon, spined lance, etc. The spined lance received its Russian name for the sharp spines located near the eyes; With these spines the fish pricks (pinches) quite sensitively.

In stories about animals, large individuals are of particular interest. We are surprised by the large size of fish, and we try to learn more about their life.

Some cartilaginous fish and sharks should be recognized as real giants. In the northern regions of the Atlantic Ocean, and partly in the Barents Sea, a gigantic shark is found. Its length is over 15 meters. Despite such gigantic size, this shark is considered a rather peaceful animal. She feeds mainly small fish and other small marine organisms, but on occasion it also eats the corpses of large sea animals, even whales. When hunting for a giant shark, accidents can occur, since it has such enormous strength that it can break a boat with blows from its tail.

Even larger sharks are found in tropical seas.

There are giants among our sturgeons (cartilaginous-boned fish). Fishermen caught belugas weighing more than one and a half tons. Belugas weighing one ton and currently are no exception.

With strong winds from the south, the water in the coastal areas of the Volga rises so much that it floods large areas of the delta. Fish, including beluga, come to these shallow waters. When the water quickly declines, clumsy beluga whales sometimes remain in drying out lowlands. Once I witnessed how a happy Astrakhan resident, with what is called his bare hands, took a live beluga almost on land, weighing more than 500 kilograms, which contained a lot of caviar of the highest quality.

Amur belugas - kalugas - weigh over a ton. When you see such giants, you are surprised not so much by the length of their body, but by their weight.

Sturgeons and stellate sturgeons also belong to big fish. The Baltic Sea sturgeon reaches the largest size; its weight is up to 160 kilograms. There are known cases when sturgeons weighing up to 280 kilograms with a body length of three and a half meters were caught.

In June 1930, a female sturgeon 265 centimeters long and weighing 128 kilograms was caught in the southern part of Lake Ladoga. The rare specimen was skinned and transferred to the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences (in Leningrad) for making a stuffed animal. Ladoga fishermen told us that another large sturgeon was caught in the Volkhov Bay almost at the same time - a male, somewhat smaller in size than the female. This fact is worthy of mention: it can be assumed that a pair of sturgeons were heading to the Volkhov River to spawn. The fishermen, who did not want to miss such prey, did not think that these fish could produce more than a million fry (sturgeon). I will say about the Baltic sturgeon in other places in the book; this fish is worth taking special care of.

One of the largest bony fish, the arapaima, lives in the rivers of tropical America. Its length is up to 4 meters, weight 150–200 kilograms. They hunt it with fishing rods and arrows. Arapaima meat is considered delicious.

The Aral catfish often weighs up to 2 centners. In the Dnieper there are even larger catfish (up to 3 quintals). The Caspian catfish weighs over 160 kilograms. The greatest length of a catfish is 5 meters.

You've probably heard about huge pike weighing 50–80 kilograms that hunt waterfowl and animals caught in the water. In stories, pike is represented as a greedy freshwater shark. There is a lot of fantastic stuff in this, but a lot of it is also true. Indeed, occasionally pikes weighing about 50 kilograms and more than 1.5 meters in length are found.

In the Amur, among the cyprinids, which are generally considered to be medium-sized fish, there are specimens reaching two meters in length and 40 kilograms in weight.

The well-known North Atlantic cod usually has a body length of 50–70 centimeters and a weight of 4–7 kilograms. But in 1940, a cod measuring 169 centimeters long and weighing 40 kilograms was caught in the Barents Sea.

Who would have guessed that among the herring-like fish, which we consider small, there are also giants! This is the Atlantic tarpun. Its length is up to 2 meters, weight up to 50 kilograms. This fish is found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, and sometimes enters rivers. Both commercial fishermen and sports anglers hunt for tarpoons. Who wouldn’t be flattered to catch such a “herring”! It is interesting that when this fish is pulled out of the water, it performs such a trick - it jumps with a hook to a height of 2-3 meters above the water.

Take a look at the picture. What a monster the hammerhead shark looks like! The Russian name of this animal fully corresponds to the shape of its body. The hammerhead fish, reaching a length of 3–4 meters, is considered one of the most terrible ocean predators, dangerous to humans. The hammerhead fish is found in tropical seas, but is also found off the coast of Europe, staying mainly near the bottom.

Next we will talk about other large fish.
Adaptability of fish
The amazing variety of shapes and sizes of fish is explained by the long history of their development and high adaptability to living conditions.

The first fish appeared several hundred million years ago. Today's existing fish bear little resemblance to their ancestors, but there is a certain similarity in the shape of the body and fins, although the body of many primitive fish was covered with a strong bony shell, and the highly developed pectoral fins resembled wings.

The oldest fish became extinct, leaving their traces only in the form of fossils. From these fossils we make guesses and assumptions about the ancestors of our fish.

It is even more difficult to talk about the ancestors of fish that left no traces. There were also fish that had no bones, scales, or shells. Similar fish still exist today. These are lampreys. They are called fish, although they, in the words of the famous scientist L. S. Berg, differ from fish as lizards from birds. Lampreys have no bones, they have one nasal opening, the intestines look like a simple straight tube, and the mouth is like a round suction cup. In past millennia, there were many lampreys and related fish, but they are gradually dying out, giving way to more adapted ones.

Sharks are also fish ancient origin. Their ancestors lived more than 360 million years ago. The internal skeleton of sharks is cartilaginous, but on the body there are hard formations in the form of spines (teeth). Sturgeons have a more perfect body structure - there are five rows of bony bugs on the body, and there are bones in the head section.

From numerous fossils of ancient fish, one can trace how their body structure developed and changed. However, it cannot be assumed that one group of fish directly converted into another. It would be a gross mistake to claim that sturgeons evolved from sharks, and bony fishes came from sturgeons. We must not forget that, in addition to the named fish, there were a huge number of others that, unable to adapt to the conditions of the nature that surrounded them, became extinct.

Modern fish also adapt to natural conditions, and in the process, their lifestyle and body structure slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, changes.

An amazing example of high adaptability to environmental conditions is provided by lungfish. Common fish breathe through gills consisting of gill arches with gill rakers and gill filaments attached to them. Lungfishes can breathe both with gills and “lungs” - uniquely designed swim bladders. The lung bladder of lungfish is replete with folds and septa with many blood vessels. It resembles the lungs of amphibians.

How can we explain this structure of the respiratory apparatus in lungfishes? These fish live in shallow bodies of water, which are quite long time dry out and become so depleted of oxygen that breathing through the gills becomes impossible. Then the inhabitants of these reservoirs - lungfish - switch to breathing with their lungs, swallowing outside air. When the reservoir dries out completely, they bury themselves in the silt and survive the drought there.

There are very few lungfish left: one genus in Africa (Protopterus), another in America (Lepidosiren) and a third in Australia (Neoceratod, or Lepidopterus).

Protopterus inhabits fresh water bodies of Central Africa and has a length of up to 2 meters. During the dry period, it burrows into the silt, forming a chamber (“cocoon”) of clay around itself, and hibernates. In such a dry nest it was possible to transport Protopterus from Africa to Europe.

Lepidosiren inhabits wetlands South America. When reservoirs are left without water during the drought, which lasts from August to September, lepidosirenus, like Protopterus, buries itself in the silt, falls into torpor, and its life is supported by an insignificant amount of air penetrating here. Lepidosiren is a large fish, reaching 1 meter in length.

The Australian lepidoptera is somewhat larger than lepidosiren and lives in quiet rivers, heavily overgrown with aquatic vegetation. When the water level is low (during dry times), the grass in the river begins to rot, the oxygen in the water almost disappears, then the scaly plant switches to breathing atmospheric air.

All of the listed lungfish are consumed by the local population as food.

Each biological feature has some significance in the life of a fish. What kind of appendages and devices do fish have for protection, intimidation, and attack! The small bitterling fish has a remarkable adaptation. By the time of reproduction, the female bitterling grows a long tube through which she lays eggs into the cavity of a bivalve shell, where the eggs will develop. This is similar to the habits of a cuckoo that throws its eggs into other people's nests. It is not so easy to get bitterling caviar from the hard and sharp shells. And the bitterling, having shifted the care onto others, hurries to put away his cunning device and again walks in the open air.

In flying fish, capable of rising above the water and flying over fairly long distances, sometimes up to 100 meters, the pectoral fins have become like wings. Frightened fish jump out of the water, spread their wings and fly over the sea. But the air ride can end very sadly: the flying birds are often attacked by birds of prey.

The flies are found in temperate and tropical parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Their size is up to 50 centimeters.

Longfins living in tropical seas are even more adapted to flight; one species is also found in the Mediterranean Sea. Longfins are similar to herrings: the head is sharp, the body is oblong, the size is 25–30 centimeters. The pectoral fins are very long. Longfins have huge swim bladders (the length of the bladder is more than half the length of the body). This device helps the fish stay in the air. Longfins can fly over distances exceeding 250 meters. When flying, the fins of longfins apparently do not flap, but act as a parachute. The flight of the fish is similar to the flight of a paper dove, which is often flown by children.

The jumping fish are also wonderful. If the pectoral fins of flying fish are adapted for flight, then in jumpers they are adapted for jumping. Small jumping fish (their length is no more than 15 centimeters), living in coastal waters mainly in the Indian Ocean, they can leave the water for quite a long time and get food (mainly insects) by jumping on land and even climbing trees.

The pectoral fins of jumpers are like strong paws. In addition, jumpers have another feature: the eyes, placed on the head projections, are mobile and can see in water and in the air. During a land journey, the fish tightly covers its gill covers and this protects the gills from drying out.

No less interesting is the creeper, or persimmon. This is a small (up to 20 centimeters) fish that lives in the fresh waters of India. Its main feature is that it can crawl on land to a long distance from the water.

Crawlers have a special epibranchial apparatus, which the fish uses when breathing air in cases where there is not enough oxygen in the water or when it moves overland from one body of water to another.

Aquarium fish, macropods, fighting fish and others also have a similar epibranchial apparatus.

Some fish have luminous organs that allow them to quickly find food in the dark depths of the seas. Luminous organs, a kind of headlights, in some fish are located near the eyes, in others - at the tips of the long processes of the head, and in others the eyes themselves emit light. An amazing property - the eyes both illuminate and see! There are fish that emit light with their entire body.

On page 31, a fish is depicted luring prey to itself with a branched, sea-grass-like head appendage. Tricky anglerfish!

In the tropical seas, and occasionally in the waters of the Far Eastern Primorye, you can find the interesting fish stuck. Why this name? Because this fish is capable of sucking and sticking to other objects. On the head there is a large suction cup, with the help of which it sticks to the fish.

Not only does the stick enjoy free transport, the fish also receives a “free” lunch, eating the leftovers from the table of their drivers. The driver, of course, is not very pleased to travel with such a “rider” (the length of the stick reaches 60 centimeters), but it is not so easy to free himself from it: the fish is attached tightly.

Coastal residents use this sticking ability to catch turtles. A cord is attached to the fish's tail and the fish is released onto the turtle. The stick quickly attaches itself to the turtle, and the fisherman lifts the stick along with the prey into the boat.

Small splashing fish live in the fresh waters of the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans. The Germans call them even better - “Schützenfisch”, which means shooter fish. The splasher, swimming near the shore, notices an insect sitting on the coastal or aquatic grass, takes water into its mouth and releases a stream at its “game” animal. How can one not call a splasher a shooter?

Some fish have electrical organs. The American electric catfish is famous. The electric stingray lives in tropical parts of the oceans. Its electric shocks can knock down an adult; small aquatic animals often die from the blows of this stingray. The electric stingray is a fairly large animal: up to 1.5 meters in length and up to 1 meter in width.

Can deliver strong electric shocks electric eel, reaching 2 meters in length. One German book depicts enraged horses being attacked by electric eels in the water, although there is a considerable amount of the artist's imagination here.

All of the above and many other features of fish have been developed over thousands of years as necessary means of adaptation to life in the aquatic environment.

It is not always so easy to explain why this or that device is needed. For example, why does carp need a strong serrated fin ray if it helps entangle fish in nets? Why do the broadmouth and the whistler need such long tails? There is no doubt that this has its own biological meaning, but not all the mysteries of nature have been solved by us. We have given a very small number of interesting examples, but they all convince us of the feasibility of various animal adaptations.

The flounder has both eyes on the same side flat body- on the one opposite the bottom of the reservoir. But flounders are born and emerge from the eggs with a different arrangement of eyes - one on each side. In flounder larvae and fry, the body is still cylindrical, and not flat, like in adult fish. The fish lies on the bottom, grows there, and its eye from the bottom side gradually moves to the upper side, on which both eyes eventually end up. Surprising, but understandable.

The development and transformation of the eel is also amazing, but less understood. The eel, before acquiring its characteristic snake-like shape, undergoes several transformations. At first it looks like a worm, then it takes on the shape of a tree leaf and, finally, the usual shape of a cylinder.

In an adult eel, the gill slits are very small and tightly closed. The feasibility of this device is that tightly covered gills dry out much more slowly, and with moistened gills the eel can remain alive for a long time without water. There is even a fairly plausible belief among people that the eel crawls through the fields.

Many fish are changing before our eyes. The offspring of large crucian carp (weighing up to 3–4 kilograms), transplanted from a lake into a small pond with little food, grows poorly, and adult fish have the appearance of “dwarfs.” This means that the adaptability of fish is closely related to high variability.

These properties can be used in the interests of the national economy - in the selection and breeding of the most valuable fish species. The time is not far distant when not only will people be at home aquarium fish, but also those that are now commercially available (bream, pike perch, whitefish and even sturgeon).

Facts found in nature indicate that fish have many advantages over other vertebrates for all kinds of experiments. First of all, fish have great vitality. It is not so rare to find fish without one or another fin, with a crippled spine, with an ugly snout, etc., but this does not prevent them from having normal general health.

The pink salmon that I discovered in the Tatar Strait without one pectoral fin came into the river with normally developed eggs, that is, it was completely prepared for spawning, although it made its long journey across the sea and along the river, moving on one side. This could be judged by the abnormally developed (changed) other pectoral fin.

But fish farmers are still very far behind livestock farmers in the domestication of economically valuable species, and in this regard they have a lot of work to do.

These huge fish can be found in the depths of the sea - although you probably wouldn’t wish meeting them on anyone.
A Cambodian man comes face to face with a giant barb fish on the Tonle Sap River near Phnom Penh.

Cambodian fishermen catch about 9 adult giant barbs in the Tonle Sap every year, making the region one of the last places on Earth where these impressive freshwater creatures can be seen.

A man swims in an aquarium with an adult giant arapaima in Manaus, Brazil. This giant is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. Some individuals reach a length of more than 3 meters and weigh over 180 kg. Behind last years Due to intensive fishing, arapaima have become rare throughout the world.

Tourists walk past stuffed paddlefish on display at the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute in Jingzhou, China. This endangered species lives in the Yangtze River in China and is a contender for the title of the world's largest freshwater fish.

A pair of sturgeon swim in an aquarium in Beijing, China. The 5-meter fish weighing up to half a ton are also among the largest freshwater and largest sturgeon on Earth.

A boy poses with a giant barb on the Tonle Sap River. The largest barb ever caught by fishermen on this river reached 3 meters in length.

Man holding newborn giant stingray

Giant stingrays like this one are found in the Mekong River in Cambodia.

Cambodian and giant catfish on the Tonle Sap River. Fishermen caught the specimen, which weighed about 230 kg, as bycatch in a stationary mesh bag. He was later released.

Slide 2

Whale shark

The largest shark is the whale shark. One liver of this shark weighs more than a ton. Her mouth is such that she could swallow a person like a pill. Fortunately, this is a completely harmless fish. It feeds mainly on plankton. Most often, the whale shark is found in the warm waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Slide 3

Slide 4

Giant shark

Slightly smaller than the whale shark, the giant shark. It can be 15 meters long and weigh up to 20 tons. Giant shark too peaceful fish. It feeds on plankton, mollusks and only occasionally tiny fish. Lives in the Atlantic Ocean, mainly in its northern part.

Slide 5

Slide 6

Arctic shark

The large shark is polar, its length is 8-9 meters. This is a real predator. It attacks large fish and even seals. In the Barents Sea, polar sharks are caught with huge hooks tied to a cable and baited with pieces of seal meat. The liver of these sharks is especially valued; excellent medicinal fish oil is rendered from it.

Slide 7

Slide 8

In distant prehistoric times, there were sharks, compared to which modern ones look like dwarfs. The fossil shark Carcharodon was enormous in size. It is believed that its length exceeded 30 meters, and its mouth could easily accommodate 7-8 people.

Slide 9

Carcharodonthos

Slide 10

Manta ray

There are also giants among stingrays. The manta ray lives in the tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. It often reaches a length of 6 meters, and its weight exceeds four tons. Fishermen call manta rays the sea devil. And for good reason. There are known cases when a huge stingray, caught on a hook, jumped out of the water and, falling into a boat with fishermen, drowned it.

Slide 11

Slide 12

Beluga

Everyone knows the Caspian beluga. After sharks and gigantic rays, this is the largest fish. In 1926, a beluga weighing 1228 kilograms was caught near Biryuchaya Spit, one caviar in it turned out to be 246 kilograms, but in 1827 a beluga weighing 1440 kilograms was caught - the largest ever caught.

Slide 13

Slide 14

Beluga too predatory fish. It feeds on roach and herring, but sometimes large fish and young seals are found in its stomach. Beluga is hunted with nets, but it is also caught with nets and even with a piece of white oilcloth wrapped around a hook.
The closest Amur relative of the beluga, kaluga, reaches almost the same size - the thunderstorm of Far Eastern salmon.

Slide 15

Slide 16

Tuna

Tuna is found in the warm waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in the Mediterranean and Black seas. This big fish, more than 3 meters long and weighing up to 600 kilograms. Tuna is famous for its tender and fatty meat: according to some, it resembles pork, according to others, chicken. Tuna is sometimes even called chicken of the sea.

Slide 17

Slide 18

Of the freshwater fish, the largest is our European catfish. Once I managed to see a catfish weighing 21 pounds (336 kilograms); it was caught in the Dnieper near Smolensk.

Slide 19

Som

Slide 20

Slightly inferior in size to the catfish freshwater fish South American arapaima. Each scale is almost the size of a jam saucer. Arapaima meat is highly valued by the local population. They hunt for it with a spear or a gun, less often they catch it with a fishing rod.

Slide 21

Arapaima

Slide 22

The moon fish reaches almost a ton, although it does not exceed 2.5 meters in length. This is a stump fish. They usually say about these: as far as along, then across. Moon fish can be found in all oceans.

Slide 23

Moon fish

Slide 24

The Barents Sea is home to halibut flounder. One adult halibut can serve at least 500 people. After all, such a flounder weighs 200, or even 300 kilograms, and its length is 4-6 meters.

Slide 25

Halibut

Slide 26

The belt fish, or, as it is also called, the herring king, looks completely different. The body of this fish is ribbon-shaped, it weighs about 100 kilograms and reaches a length of 6-7 meters. The homeland of the belt fish is the Atlantic and Indian oceans. It is called the herring king because it often moves with a school of herring, and has a crown-like corolla on its head.

Slide 27

Herring king

Slide 28

Pike are also large, reaching 2.5 meters in length and 60-70 kilograms in weight. The largest specimens are found in the reservoirs of the North and in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. In Lake Valdai I managed to catch a pike weighing 28 kilograms. She was as tall as me - 1 meter 80 centimeters.

Dwarf fish and giant fish

In the class of fish, as in other classes of animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, there are species characterized by different sizes. Among the fish there are real dwarfs and monstrous giants.

In the Philippine Islands, between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, there is a tiny lake goby, Mystichthys, which is 1–1.5 centimeters long. This goby is found in large flocks. The inhabitants of the islands catch it and eat it. The mystichthys goby is considered the smallest animal of all vertebrates in the world.

In stories about animals, large individuals are of particular interest. We are surprised by the large size of fish, and we try to learn more about their life.

Some cartilaginous fish and sharks should be recognized as real giants. In the northern regions of the Atlantic Ocean, and partly in the Barents Sea, a gigantic shark is found. Its length is over 15 meters. Despite such gigantic size, this shark is considered a rather peaceful animal. It feeds mainly on small fish and other small marine organisms, but on occasion it also eats the corpses of large sea animals, even whales. When hunting for a giant shark, accidents can occur, since it has such enormous strength that it can break a boat with blows from its tail.

Even larger sharks are found in tropical seas.

There are giants among our sturgeons (cartilaginous-boned fish). Fishermen caught belugas weighing more than one and a half tons. Belugas weighing one ton and currently are no exception.

With strong winds from the south, the water in the coastal areas of the Volga rises so much that it floods large areas of the delta. Fish, including beluga, come to these shallow waters. When the water quickly declines, clumsy beluga whales sometimes remain in drying out lowlands. Once I witnessed how a happy Astrakhan resident, with what is called his bare hands, took a live beluga almost on land, weighing more than 500 kilograms, which contained a lot of caviar of the highest quality.

Amur belugas - kalugas - weigh over a ton. When you see such giants, you are surprised not so much by the length of their body, but by their weight.

Sturgeons and stellate sturgeons are also large fish. The Baltic Sea sturgeon reaches the largest size; its weight is up to 160 kilograms. There are known cases when sturgeons weighing up to 280 kilograms with a body length of three and a half meters were caught.

One of the largest bony fish, the arapaima, lives in the rivers of tropical America. Its length is up to 4 meters, weight 150–200 kilograms. They hunt it with fishing rods and arrows. Arapaima meat is considered delicious.

In the Amur, among the cyprinids, which are generally considered to be medium-sized fish, there are specimens reaching two meters in length and 40 kilograms in weight.

From the book Traces of Unseen Beasts author Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich

Giants and dwarfs of their own kind

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author

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From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

Are fish dumb? Even in the time of Aristotle, it was known that fish make different sounds. People can hear the sounds made by some fish, even without any instruments. Leonardo da Vinci suggested listening to “underwater voices” by placing your ear to a vertically lowered one in the water.

From the book Man Gives a Name author Krasnopevtsev Valentin Pavlovich

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From the book Incidents Under Water author Merkulyeva Ksenia Alekseevna

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From the book Aquarium at School author Makhlin Mark Davidovich

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From the book Problems of Ethology author Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich

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From the book Animal World. Volume 6 [Pet Tales] author Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich

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From the book Animal World author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

Hydroacoustics fish, placing their ears to the chest of the ocean, hear the thrill of its life. This is difficult for us: the tariff at the air-water border is too high. Here, when leaving one environment for another, almost all sound energy is absorbed (minus a percentage). Soloviev among fish

From the book Breeding Fish, Crayfish and Domestic Waterfowl author Zadorozhnaya Lyudmila Alexandrovna

Fish There are only two truly domestic fish: carp and gold fish. Some scientists also consider the macropod to be a domestic animal. The original wild form of carp is carp. The time of its domestication is unknown. The opinions of scientists are divided: some consider the homeland

In the class of fish, as in other classes of animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, there are species characterized by different sizes. Among the fish there are real dwarfs and monstrous giants.

In the Philippine Islands, between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, there is a tiny lake goby, Mystichthys, which is 1-1.5 centimeters long. This goby is found in large flocks. The inhabitants of the islands catch it and eat it. The mystichthys goby is considered the smallest animal of all vertebrates in the world.

In our waters, sea and fresh, there are many fish measuring 5-10 centimeters in size. The Baikal goby usually has a length of 8 centimeters, and only occasionally specimens up to 14 centimeters long are found. This fish swims among the stones most of the time, here it feeds, and here it reproduces.

Small sized stickleback fish. There is a lot of it in lakes, rivers and brackish coastal areas of the seas. The Aral nine-spined stickleback is only 5-6 centimeters in length. There are so many sticklebacks in our waters that they could become a commercial fish. In Finland and other Baltic countries, stickleback is caught and processed into fat for technical purposes and flour for livestock and poultry feed.

In stories about animals, large individuals are of particular interest. We are surprised by the large size of fish, and we try to learn more about their life.

Even larger sharks are found in tropical seas.

There are giants among our sturgeons (cartilaginous-boned fish). Fishermen caught belugas weighing more than one and a half tons. Belugas weighing one ton and currently are no exception.

With strong winds from the south, the water in the coastal areas of the Volga rises so much that it floods large areas of the delta. Fish, including beluga, come to these shallow waters. When the water quickly declines, clumsy beluga whales sometimes remain in drying out lowlands. Once I witnessed how a happy Astrakhan resident, with what is called his bare hands, took a live beluga weighing more than 500 kilograms almost on land, which contained a lot of caviar of the highest quality.

Amur belugas - kalugas - weigh over a ton. When you see such giants, you are surprised not so much by the length of their body, but by their weight.

One of the largest bony fish, the arapaima, lives in the rivers of tropical America. Its length is up to 4 meters, weight is 150-200 kilograms. They hunt it with fishing rods and arrows. Arapaima meat is considered delicious.

You've probably heard about huge pikes weighing 50-80 kilograms that hunt waterfowl and animals caught in the water. In stories, pike is represented as a greedy freshwater shark. There is a lot of fantastic stuff in this, but a lot of it is also true. Indeed, occasionally pikes weighing about 50 kilograms and more than 1.5 meters in length are found.

In the Amur, among the cyprinids, which are generally considered to be medium-sized fish, there are specimens reaching two meters in length and 40 kilograms in weight.

The well-known North Atlantic cod usually has a body length of 50-70 centimeters and a weight of 4-7 kilograms. But in 1940, a cod measuring 169 centimeters long and weighing 40 kilograms was caught in the Barents Sea.

Who would have guessed that among the herring-like fish, which we consider small, there are also giants! This is the Atlantic tarpun. Its length is up to 2 meters, weight up to 50 kilograms. This fish is found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, and sometimes enters rivers. Both commercial fishermen and angler fishermen hunt for tarpoons. Who wouldn’t be flattered to catch such a “herring”! It is interesting that when this fish is pulled out of the water, it performs such a trick - it jumps with a hook to a height of 2-3 meters above the water.

Take a look at the picture. What a monster the hammerhead shark looks like! The Russian name of this animal fully corresponds to the shape of its body. The hammerhead fish, reaching a length of 3-4 meters, is considered one of the most terrible ocean predators, dangerous to humans. The hammerhead fish is found in tropical seas, but is also found off the coast of Europe, staying mainly near the bottom.