What is the largest fish in the ocean? Is it really a blue whale? then you guessed wrong
When it comes to the largest fish in the world, many people's first reaction is whales. In fact, whales are mammals, not fish. The largest fish in the world is the whale shark. Under normal circumstances, an adult individual can reach 9-12 meters, or even about 20 meters. The weight is generally maintained at 10,000 kg (10 tons), and can even reach 12,500 kg (12.5 tons) at the heaviest, while the weight of African elephants is generally only 5-8 tons.
largest fish in the world
The reason why the whale shark is named whale shark is actually because it is as huge as a whale. And because its name contains "shark", many people think that this fish is very fierce by nature. In fact, the whale shark has a very gentle personality. So far, there has been no case of a whale shark attacking a person.
If a snorkeler encounters it on the bottom of the sea, the whale shark will even greet the snorkeler and swim near the snorkeler. However, although whale sharks do not actively attack people, experts do not recommend that humans approach them actively. This is to prevent them from swallowing humans out of curiosity, and their fins will also interfere with humans when swimming .
Although whale sharks are huge in size, their food is very small. They mainly eat plankton and various small fish and shrimps, and do not prey on larger fish and marine life.
It's not that they don't like to eat larger marine life, it's because they can't. Their tooth structure does not have the function of biting, but like a human filter, it consists of more than 300 tiny teeth arranged in a barbed shape.
When a whale shark preys, it will open its mouth and swallow everything around it into its mouth, then close its mouth and expel the water through its gills, leaving the remaining plankton and small fish and shrimps in its stomach. In other words, whale sharks don't actually chew, but swallow.
People describe whale sharks vividly and say: " Be the biggest fish and eat the smallest shrimp ."
The largest freshwater fish in the world
At present, there are many controversies about the largest freshwater fish in the world. The most controversial is which one is bigger, the yellow mink, the Chinese sturgeon or the giant catfish.
At present, the largest freshwater fish recorded in history is the Mekong giant catfish, which is 2.7 meters long and weighs 300 kilograms .
It is worth noting that giant catfish and catfish are not the same species. Due to the increase in human activities, the habitat of giant catfish has been drastically reduced, and it has been assessed as a highly endangered species by the World Nature Conservation Organization.
In addition to giant catfish, the number of Chinese sturgeon living in the Yangtze River in China is not optimistic.
The adult Chinese sturgeon generally weighs 50-300 kilograms, and of course there are very few individuals that can reach 600 kilograms. It is the largest fish in the Yangtze River.
The Chinese sturgeon, also known as the giant panda in the water, is also considered a living fossil. Since the Jurassic era, the Chinese sturgeon has appeared on this earth.
The feeding habits of Chinese sturgeon are very complex, belonging to omnivorous fish, generally feeding on crabs, fish, molluscs and insects. Like the giant catfish, due to the increase in human activities and frequent cruises and ferries on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the habitat of the Chinese sturgeon has been reduced and the environment has also been destroyed. Therefore, the number of Chinese sturgeons has decreased sharply in recent years.
At present, the breeding population of wild Chinese sturgeon is less than 200 (data from 2008), and no natural breeding Chinese sturgeon juveniles have been detected in the wild, and artificial breeding is the only way to maintain the population of Chinese sturgeon.
Therefore, the Chinese sturgeon is assessed as a critically endangered species by the World Conservation Organization.
largest fish in history
The largest fish in history is the megalodon that lived between 15 million and 2.6 million years ago. Its average body length is 14 meters and its weight is about 40 tons, which is about ten times that of an elephant. The megalodon is currently It is by far the largest and one of the most fearsome predators in the ocean.
We often say that whales are the largest mammals in the world, but at that time, megalodon sharks liked to prey on cetaceans the most. Not only that, almost any creature in the ocean was its prey.
What's even more frightening is that the megalodon has almost no natural enemies. Only Melville's whale, which is also a top predator, can compete with it. However, they are not competing, but hunting their own prey.