Something fishy

Image by Mike Johnston via Flickr

• The surgeon fish have bones near tails that are as sharp as a surgeon’s knife.
• The sea horse is one of the oldest of fishes. It swims by moving the fin on its back female lays her eggs in a pouch on the male’s belly. The babies swim out after hatching. they are only fishes with prehensile tails. They are good camouflaging.
• The puffer fish can blow up is body like a balloon to scare its enemies. This also makes it difficult for its enemies to swallow it.
• Piranhas are small predatory South America fresh water fish which attack large animals that wade in the water. They have very powerful and sharp teeth and can gnaw their prey to the bones in a very short time.
• Corals are living animals found in large colonies. What we see is the skeleton outside the body. It may be soft and jelly –like or horny or stony. Corals are generally found in warm tropical waters.
• Salmon are born in fresh water where they remain for the first three years of their lives. Later they migrate to the pacific and Atlantic ocean. When it is time to spawn, they make long journey back to the rivers of their birth to lay their eggs. They can be seen leaping up water falls and weirs to reach the spawning beds.
• Sting rays round or diamond shaped ray fish. Several species have poisonous tail stings. They keep to shallow coastal waters. When threatened the sting rays lash out violently with their spiny tails causing deep cuts, and poisoning with their venom.
• Sponges are animals which are irregular in shape and size. They have international skeleton of limestone, silica or a fibrous protein (sponging).
• Butterfly fish are among the prettiest of all fish. They swim among the coral reefs and are found in many splendid colors and shapes.
• Lungfish have lungs as well as gills. They can survive long periods of drought by burying themselves in mud. They existed in large numbers many years ago but now there are only a few species left.
• Squids have ten arms bearing suckers, surrounding their mouths. Two arms are long tentacles which can be retracted and are used for capturing their prey.
• Mudskippers are fish found in swamps. They have elongated bodies, blunt heads and protruding eyes. What is unusual about them is that they can climb and walk over land using their pectoral fins as limbs.