During this transition larvae must switch from their yolk sac to feeding on zooplankton prey, a process which depends on typically inadequate zooplankton density, starving many larvae. In ovoviviparous fish the eggs develop inside the mother's body after internal fertilization but receive little or no nourishment directly from the mother, depending instead on the yolk. Each embryo develops in its own egg.
Familiar examples of ovoviviparous fish include guppies , angel sharks , and coelacanths. Some species of fish are viviparous. In such species the mother retains the eggs and nourishes the embryos. Typically, viviparous fish have a structure analogous to the placenta seen in mammals connecting the mother's blood supply with that of the embryo. Examples of viviparous fish include the surf-perches , splitfins , and lemon shark.
Some viviparous fish exhibit oophagy , in which the developing embryos eat other eggs produced by the mother. This has been observed primarily among sharks, such as the shortfin mako and porbeagle , but is known for a few bony fish as well, such as the halfbeak Nomorhamphus ebrardtii. This behavior is also most commonly found among sharks, such as the grey nurse shark , but has also been reported for Nomorhamphus ebrardtii.
Aquarists commonly refer to ovoviviparous and viviparous fish as livebearers. Fish can produce either stridulatory sounds by moving components of the skeletal system, or can produce non-stridulatory sounds by manipulating specialized organs such as the swimbladder. There are some species of fish that can produce sounds by rubbing or grinding their bones together. These noises produced by bone-on-bone interactions are known as 'stridulatory sounds'.
An example of this is seen in Haemulon flavolineatum , a species commonly referred to as the 'French grunt fish', as it produces a grunting noise by grinding its teeth together. In a study conducted by Oliveira et al. The sounds emitted by the H. Some fish species create noise by engaging specialized muscles that contract and cause swimbladder vibrations.
Oyster toadfish produce loud grunting sounds by contracting muscles located along the sides of their swim bladder, known as sonic muscles [53] Female and male toadfishes emit short-duration grunts, often as a fright response. The red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus , produces drumming sounds by vibrating its swimbladder.
Ocellatus can produce different calls depending on the stimuli involved.
Ocellatus species, the females of this species don't produce sounds and lack sound-producing sonic muscles. Like other animals, fish suffer from diseases and parasites. To prevent disease they have a variety of defenses. Non-specific defenses include the skin and scales, as well as the mucus layer secreted by the epidermis that traps and inhibits the growth of microorganisms.
If pathogens breach these defenses, fish can develop an inflammatory response that increases blood flow to the infected region and delivers white blood cells that attempt to destroy pathogens. Specific defenses respond to particular pathogens recognised by the fish's body, i. Some species use cleaner fish to remove external parasites. The best known of these are the Bluestreak cleaner wrasses of the genus Labroides found on coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
These small fish maintain so-called "cleaning stations" where other fish congregate and perform specific movements to attract the attention of the cleaners. Immune organs vary by type of fish. These fish rely on regions of lymphoid tissue within other organs to produce immune cells. For example, erythrocytes , macrophages and plasma cells are produced in the anterior kidney or pronephros and some areas of the gut where granulocytes mature.
They resemble primitive bone marrow in hagfish. Cartilaginous fish sharks and rays have a more advanced immune system. They have three specialized organs that are unique to Chondrichthyes ; the epigonal organs lymphoid tissue similar to mammalian bone that surround the gonads, the Leydig's organ within the walls of their esophagus, and a spiral valve in their intestine.
These organs house typical immune cells granulocytes, lymphocytes and plasma cells. They also possess an identifiable thymus and a well-developed spleen their most important immune organ where various lymphocytes , plasma cells and macrophages develop and are stored. Chondrostean fish sturgeons, paddlefish, and bichirs possess a major site for the production of granulocytes within a mass that is associated with the meninges membranes surrounding the central nervous system. Their heart is frequently covered with tissue that contains lymphocytes, reticular cells and a small number of macrophages.
The chondrostean kidney is an important hemopoietic organ; where erythrocytes, granulocytes, lymphocytes and macrophages develop. Like chondrostean fish, the major immune tissues of bony fish or teleostei include the kidney especially the anterior kidney , which houses many different immune cells. Much like the mammalian immune system, teleost erythrocytes, neutrophils and granulocytes are believed to reside in the spleen whereas lymphocytes are the major cell type found in the thymus.
Although not confirmed as yet, this system presumably will be where naive unstimulated T cells accumulate while waiting to encounter an antigen. B and T lymphocytes bearing immunoglobulins and T cell receptors , respectively, are found in all jawed fishes. Indeed, the adaptive immune system as a whole evolved in an ancestor of all jawed vertebrate. However, freshwater fish seem particularly threatened because they often live in relatively small water bodies. Overfishing is a major threat to edible fish such as cod and tuna. Such commercial extinction does not mean that the species is extinct, merely that it can no longer sustain a fishery.
One well-studied example of fishery collapse is the Pacific sardine Sadinops sagax caerulues fishery off the California coast. The main tension between fisheries science and the fishing industry is that the two groups have different views on the resiliency of fisheries to intensive fishing. In places such as Scotland, Newfoundland, and Alaska the fishing industry is a major employer, so governments are predisposed to support it. A key stress on both freshwater and marine ecosystems is habitat degradation including water pollution , the building of dams, removal of water for use by humans, and the introduction of exotic species.
Introduction of non-native species has occurred in many habitats. One of the best studied examples is the introduction of Nile perch into Lake Victoria in the s. Nile perch gradually exterminated the lake's endemic cichlid species. Some of them survive now in captive breeding programmes, but others are probably extinct.
Throughout history, humans have utilized fish as a food source. Historically and today, most fish protein has come by means of catching wild fish. However, aquaculture, or fish farming, which has been practiced since about 3, BCE.
Overall, about one-sixth of the world's protein is estimated to be provided by fish. In a similar manner, fish have been tied to trade. Catching fish for the purpose of food or sport is known as fishing , while the organized effort by humans to catch fish is called a fishery. Fisheries are a huge global business and provide income for millions of people. However, the term fishery is broadly applied, and includes more organisms than just fish, such as mollusks and crustaceans , which are often called "fish" when used as food. Fish have been recognized as a source of beauty for almost as long as used for food, appearing in cave art , being raised as ornamental fish in ponds, and displayed in aquariums in homes, offices, or public settings.
Recreational fishing is fishing for pleasure or competition; it can be contrasted with commercial fishing , which is fishing for profit. The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod , reel , line , hooks and any one of a wide range of baits. Angling is a method of fishing, specifically the practice of catching fish by means of an "angle" hook. Anglers must select the right hook, cast accurately, and retrieve at the right speed while considering water and weather conditions, species, fish response, time of the day, and other factors.
Fish themes have symbolic significance in many religions. In ancient Mesopotamia , fish offerings were made to the gods from the very earliest times. In the Book of Jonah , a work of Jewish literature probably written in the fourth century BC, the central figure, a prophet named Jonah , is swallowed by a giant fish after being thrown overboard by the crew of the ship he is travelling on.
In the dhamma of Buddhism , the fish symbolize happiness as they have complete freedom of movement in the water. Often drawn in the form of carp which are regarded in the Orient as sacred on account of their elegant beauty, size and life-span. The astrological symbol Pisces is based on a constellation of the same name , but there is also a second fish constellation in the night sky, Piscis Austrinus.
Fish feature prominently in art and literature, in movies such as Finding Nemo and books such as The Old Man and the Sea. Large fish, particularly sharks, have frequently been the subject of horror movies and thrillers , most notably the novel Jaws , which spawned a series of films of the same name that in turn inspired similar films or parodies such as Shark Tale and Snakehead Terror.
Piranhas are shown in a similar light to sharks in films such as Piranha ; however, contrary to popular belief, the red-bellied piranha is actually a generally timid scavenger species that is unlikely to harm humans. Though often used interchangeably, in biology these words have different meanings.
Fish is used as a singular noun, or as a plural to describe multiple individuals from a single species. Fishes is used to describe different species or species groups.
But if the pond contained a total of fish from three different species, it would be said to contain three fishes. The distinction is similar to that between people and peoples. A random assemblage of fish merely using some localised resource such as food or nesting sites is known simply as an aggregation.
When fish come together in an interactive, social grouping, then they may be forming either a shoal or a school depending on the degree of organisation. A shoal is a loosely organised group where each fish swims and forages independently but is attracted to other members of the group and adjusts its behaviour, such as swimming speed, so that it remains close to the other members of the group.
Schools of fish are much more tightly organised, synchronising their swimming so that all fish move at the same speed and in the same direction. Shoaling and schooling behaviour is believed to provide a variety of advantages. While the words "school" and "shoal" have different meanings within biology, the distinctions are often ignored by non-specialists who treat the words as synonyms.
Thus speakers of British English commonly use "shoal" to describe any grouping of fish, and speakers of American English commonly use "school" just as loosely. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For fish as eaten by humans, see Fish as food. For other uses, see Fish disambiguation. For the similar monophyletic clade, see Vertebrata. Giant grouper swimming among schools of other fish. Head-on view of a red lionfish. Fish anatomy and Fish physiology. Fish reproduction and Spawn biology. Egg of bullhead shark. Fish diseases and parasites.
Environmental impact of fishing. Fishing industry , Aquaculture , and Fish farming. Fishkeeping , Recreational fishing , and Angling. For a topical guide to sharks, see Outline of sharks. Angling sport fishing Aquaculture Aquarium Catch and release Deep sea fish Fish acute toxicity syndrome Fish anatomy Fish as food Fish development Fishing fishing for food Fish intelligence Fishkeeping Forage fish Ichthyology List of fish common names List of fish families Marine biology Marine vertebrates Mercury in fish Otolith Bone used for determining the age of a fish Pregnancy fish Seafood Walking fish.
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Archived from the original on 17 October An Encyclopedia of Ichthyology, Ecology, and Evolution. Archived from the original on 8 February Fishes of the World. Fisheries glossary Archived 29 November at the Wayback Machine. The Diversity of Fishes. Ed Behaviour of teleost fishes. Chapman and Hall, New York, pp — This gallery contains a small selection of interesting images that have been recently added to the site. The images have been sent from a wonderful community of keen divers, snorkelers, anglers, aquarists and fish enthusiasts.
Thank you one and all! Skip to main content Skip to acknowledgement of country Skip to footer On this page Fish and their families Fishes have a range of body sizes from the massive whale shark down to the smallest fish under a centimetre in length. Fish Factsheets Fact Sheets in this section. Search all Fact Sheets Keywords: Parts, dissection and identification.
Parts of a fish About the anatomy of fishes and identifying a fish to family. Fish scales A fish scale is a fish scale, right? Fish bones Fishes come in such an amazing variety of shapes and sizes. Glossary of fish terms This page lists many of the terms used throughout the site. A deepsea anglerfish, Bufoceratias wedli. Note the lines of sensory papillae and the long lure that terminates in an esca.
A Threadfin Dragonfish 'coughed up' by a Blue-eye Trevalla Hyperoglyphe antarctica caught by a crew member on the commercial fishing vessel Claudarah at a depth around m, Taupo Seamount, New South Wales, 01 June It is now registered in the ichthyology collection AMS I. Yellow-wing Flyingfish, Cypselurus poeciliopterus. Geoff took a number of flying fish photos over 2 days. He commented that he was amazed at how many different species there were and the size range from as small as your little finger to mm long.