Many
animals that live in water are called fish. Perch, crayfish,
cuttlefish, jellyfish, starfish, and even whales and dolphins all live
in water. Yet, of these animals, only the perch is a true fish. Whales
and dolphins are warm-blooded mammals. The others belong to the great
group of animals without backbones, called invertebrates.
A
fish is a cold-blooded animal that has a backbone and lives in water
and breathes by means of gills. It normally has two pairs of fins in
place of arms and legs, as well as several other fins. Many fish are
covered with scales.Certain other animals live in water at least part of the time. They too have backbones, and early in their lives they breathe underwater by means of gills. These are the amphibians—primarily frogs, toads, and salamanders. How, then, can one tell fish from amphibians? Among the differences are that fish have fins as appendages and most fish have scales that cover the body. Most adult amphibians have legs and no body scales. Fish never have true legs.
Variety in Size and Shape
Fish are fascinating in their variety. We have just defined a typical fish. But there are fish with lungs that live part of the time out of water. There are fish without paired fins and fish without a scaly body covering. They take many shapes. A fish such as a trout has a streamlined boat shape; but the sea horse is also a fish, and looks something like a tiny horse standing on its tail. Eels and morays are long and slender, like snakes. Flounders are as flat as a dinner plate. The ocean sunfish looks like a huge head without a body.The rabbitfish, a small relative of the shark, has a head and teeth resembling those of a rabbit. Even stranger is the oarfish. It looks like a horse with a streaming red mane. A dweller of the deep seas, it has a bluish-silver body, compressed vertically like a ribbon, and can be up to 50 feet (15 meters) long and weigh about 600 pounds (270 kilograms). A fin tipped with flaming red runs the length of the back and rises to a high crest over the long jaw. Tales of sea serpents might be explained by this fantastic creature.Anglerfishes carry their own hook, line, and bait to catch other fish. The rod is an extension of a spine of the back fin. In one kind of angler it is jointed and can be cast forward and pulled back to the mouth. From its tip hang fleshy, wormlike tentacles that can be expanded and contracted. One of the deep-sea anglers has a luminous bulb at the end of the rod, which it dangles in front of its gaping mouth and flashes off and on to attract victims.Size differs as much as shape. Certain Philippine gobies reach an adult size of only about 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) and weigh less than 0.001 ounce (0.03 gram). The whale shark, the largest of all fishes, reaches 50 feet in length and about 20 tons (18,140 kilograms) in weight. The Atlantic bluefin tuna may be 14 feet (4 meters) long and weigh as much as 1,800 pounds (820 kilograms). Marlins also reach a weight of about 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms). Sturgeons are the largest freshwater fish; some are 14 feet long and weigh more than one ton (900 kilograms).
Where Fish Live
Fish live in most natural aquatic habitats on Earth except very salty water, such as the Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Pollution has been a major problem for many species of fish, particularly in freshwater lakes, streams, and rivers, where waste products from industries, agriculture, and urban areas create poor oxygen conditions, add toxic chemicals, or alter pH conditions to be too acidic or basic.Fish are found from the sunny surface of the ocean down to the darkest depths where light never penetrates. Some can live in hot desert pools at temperatures of more than 100° F (38° C) that would kill most animals. Others spend their entire lives in the dark pools and streams of underground caves. In tropical countries some fish are able to flop and crawl across mud flats and wet fields in search of food, and others can burrow into mud when their pools dry up. They can lie dormant, for months if necessary, until the rains restore them to active life.
More than 20,000 living kinds of fish are known, and new species are discovered every year. This is more than all the other kinds of backboned animals combined. Another 20,000 fossil fish are known.
The Endless Food Chain
The greatest numbers of fish are found off the continental shelves of cold seas. Here thrive the tiny, one-celled algae called diatoms, one of the basic food supplies of the ocean's animal life. They attract hordes of fish, and here one finds the great commercial fisheries of the world—in the North Atlantic, in the North Sea, and around Japan.Fish are found in smallest numbers in the deep sea where there is no light and no plant life. Here fish must feed on other deep-sea animal life or on whatever scraps drift down to them from above.
Many fish feed on fish smaller than themselves and are in turn the food of larger fish. Basically, however, all fish depend on the rich “pastures of the sea” known as plankton. A little more than half of the plankton consists of diatoms. The rest is made up of microscopic organisms—one-celled protozoans; eggs and larvae of fish and shellfish; tiny shrimplike creatures, the copepods, and countless others. Plankton drifts with the currents, flowing like a thick, rich soup.
The Shape of a Typical Fish
The most highly developed fishes are those with a bony skeleton. They are also the most abundant and the most familiar. The mackerel is typical of this highest order.Observing how easily and swiftly the fish cuts the water, people pattern boats and submarines after its streamlined body. A typical fish is spindle-shaped but somewhat wider in front of the middle. The head joins the body without a neck. The eyes are flush with the head; the gill openings are covered with a smooth flap. Only the fins extend beyond the body, and they can be pressed flat against the sides. Water resistance is further lessened by a coating of slime.
Scales Record Fish's Life
Most fish are covered with scales that overlap each other like shingles on a roof. The scales are not shed like the hair or feathers of mammals and birds, but if any are lost by accident new ones grow to take their place.As the fish grows, the scales grow also by adding rings of new material around the edge. In summer, when food is abundant, the rings are wide; in winter they are narrow. A fish does not eat when it is spawning (laying eggs), so the growth rings are narrow at this time. An expert can therefore learn a great deal about a fish, including its age and breeding habits, by studying its scales. Under the scales is a layer of skin, which is coated with slime.
Unlike human beings, most fish continue to grow as long as they live. Old fish may become very large. The exceptions are fish such as the salmon, which have a definite period of growth before spawning, and after spawning, die. Carp are said to have a life span of 100 years, but few fish in the wild die of old age. Though many fish are believed to reach ages of 50 to 100 years, scientific documentation for individuals reaching ages of more than 15 to 20 years in natural environments is rare.
The
fins are composed of a web of skin supported by horny rays. Two pairs
of fins correspond to arms (pectoral fins) and legs (pelvic, or
ventral, fins). There are also several unpaired, or median, fins—dorsal
(back), caudal (tail), and anal (belly). Fish never have more than two
pairs of paired fins, but a few fish, such as some eels, have none. The
median fins vary considerably in number.
How Fish Swim
Fish swim chiefly by sideways muscular movements of the body and sweeps of the tail. The fins are used for balancing, steering, and braking.To move quickly from a resting position some fish shoot a stream of water out of the gills and lunge forward by jet propulsion. Flatfish jump straight up from the sea bed by shooting water out of the gill on the underside of the head.
The fastest swimmers, such as the tuna, have a deeply forked, half-moon tail. These fish can travel 30 miles (48 kilometers) per hour. Other maximum speeds over a short distance include sailfish, at 68 miles (109 kilometers) per hour; salmon, 25 miles (40 kilometers) per hour; trout, 23 miles (37 kilometers) per hour; perch, 10 miles (16 kilometers) per hour.
Many fish are able to jump considerable distances. Flying fish and sailfish have enlarged pectoral fins that serve as gliders when the fish hurl themselves out of the water. Some fish walk. The tropical sea robins, or gurnards, step over the ocean floor on the fingerlike rays of their pectoral fins. The walking perch of southeastern Asia cross land to migrate from one pond to another. They travel in a clumsy, sprawling fashion by spreading out the opercula, or gill covers, and fixing them to the ground by sharp spines, then giving a vigorous shove with the tail and pectoral fins.
How Fish Breathe
A heart pumps blood through the body of a fish. Most fish breathe by means of gills. They consist of many tiny filaments supplied with blood vessels. Water enters the open mouth. Then the fish closes its mouth and the water is forced over the filaments and out through the opercula. Oxygen dissolved in the water is absorbed into the bloodstream through the delicate membrane of the filaments. Inside the mouth are straining devices called gill rakers. They prevent food and debris from passing over and injuring the gills.Some fish breathe by means of both gills and simple lungs. The mudfish is an example. Various tropical fish of stagnant pools and muddy shores—the walking perch, skipping gobies, and blennies—come to the surface at intervals to gulp air. Most fish have an air bladder, called a swim bladder. It is a long sac filled with gas, between the stomach and the backbone. Its purpose is not clear, but it has been regarded as a balance to keep the fish suspended in the water. In air-breathing fish it serves as the lung.
Senses of Fish
The brain of a fish is poorly developed. The cerebrum, which in humans is the center of thought and reasoning, is missing entirely, though a fish has a sensitive nervous system.The eye is similar to that of other backboned animals. There is no need for eyelids to keep the eyes moist. Fish are usually nearsighted but can distinguish colors. Flatfish have both eyes on the same side of the head. Some cave-dwelling fish are blind. Some deep-sea fish develop enormously enlarged eyes and eyes that are mounted on stalks like telescopes.
The four-eyed fish of Central and South American rivers swims on the surface of the water. The two eyes are divided by a black horizontal line across the center, giving the impression that each eye is actually two. The upper half is adapted for seeing in air, the lower half for seeing in water.
Eyesight may be very sharp. The archerfish feeds by knocking insects off of twigs several feet above the surface of the water with a drop of water spit from its mouth. Its aim is perfect.
The sense of smell is located in deep pits in the head. In some fish it is very keen. Sharks are attracted from a great distance by the odor of blood.
Fish do not have ears, but a hearing apparatus is buried deep in the head. Fish apparently can hear, for they can be trained in an aquarium to come to the side of the tank for food when a bell is rung.
Most fish have a lateral line, a canal that extends the length of the body and consists of a rod of nerve cells. Probably this line helps the fish to feel movements in the water, such as the approach of another fish. Bottom-dwelling fish search for food by using sensitive barbels, or feelers around the mouth.
Certain kinds of fish travel in great groups known as schools or shoals. The precision with which such schools swim in formation, twisting, diving, speeding up in unison with their leaders, and yet never colliding, is one of nature's wonders. Some fish are known to maintain spacing by use of the lateral line, which is sensitive to vibrations in the water. Vision may also play a major part, but the mechanisms are poorly understood for most species.
Noises Under the Water
Fish have no voice but they do make sounds, as the United States Navy learned during World War II, when underwater noises caused confusion in submarine detection. With the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Navy identified and made phonographic records of the various fish sounds.Booming, drumming, and grunting noises are produced by the swim bladder. Croakers are among the noisiest fish. Their two- and three-beat drumrolls are made by the action of certain muscles which drum against the swim bladder and set it vibrating. Ocean sunfish and hogfish grind their teeth. Other fish scrape their fins against their bodies.
Protective Color and Camouflage
Nearly all fish are protectively colored to resemble their surroundings and deceive enemies or prey In the tropics many fish are as brilliantly colored as jewels. Yet they are protected by such tricks of camouflage as vertical black or white stripes that break up the outlines of the body and make it hard to see. Eyes are bright objects at which an enemy might strike. Often the stripings of the head are carried onto the eye through the iris, making it nearly invisible. Some fish have eyelike spots (ocelli) in the tail region so that when a predator strikes what it thinks is the head, the fish can rapidly escape.Some fish change color and pattern with the background on which they are lying. Groupers and flatfish are particularly effective in matching their surroundings. Color change in these fish is controlled through their eyes. If the fish is blinded it loses the power to change. Color change also takes place if a fish is frightened or angry. Violent emotions react on the pituitary gland and cause it to pour hormones into the bloodstream. The hormones in turn affect the color cells.Color and pattern in a fish are caused by the grouping of color cells. These cells, and particles that reflect light, are located between the scales and on the skin. Each cell is shaped like a many-armed star, and each contains pigment of a single color. The pigment can become almost invisible by retracting into the center of the star; or it can expand out into the arms, exposing its color in varying degrees. The amount of pigment exposed to view, combined with the pigment in other cells, determines the color pattern of the fish. Secretion from the pituitary gland causes the color cells and pigment to develop.
Most newly hatched fish are colorless and transparent, making them almost invisible to enemies. The color cells do not develop until they are older and better able to defend themselves.
The beautiful iridescence of some fish is caused by crystals of guanine. This is a waste product of the blood that is deposited in the skin.
Weapons and Defense
Fish have a variety of defenses against their enemies. Size and speed are an advantage to such fish as the tuna, salmon, tarpon, and shark. The sailfish, swordfish, marlin, and sawfish have prolonged snouts that form long, wicked spears and saws. Barracuda and piranha have vicious teeth. The piranha has been called the most ferocious fish in the world. Schools of these freshwater fish, which are found in South American rivers, can consume the flesh of a swimming animal in an unbelievably short time.There are electric fishes, such as the torpedo, that are capable of delivering a paralyzing shock. Spines on fins and opercula, many of them provided with poison glands, inflict extremely painful and even fatal wounds on humans and animals. The barbed tail of the stingray and the pectoral fins of a tiny catfish called the mad tom are examples.Relationships of Fish
Some fish live together in a relationship called symbiosis. Giant morays permit little butterfly fish to swim in and out of their mouths in search of parasites. One type of damselfish hides among the tentacles of the sea anemone. Safe from the anemone's sting, it lures larger fish, which the anemone kills. Then the damselfish shares in the leftovers of the feast. In the same way the man-of-war fish lives among the tentacles of the venomous Portuguese man-of-war, a jellyfish. The remora known as the sharksucker fastens itself to the body of a shark by means of a suction disk on the top of its head. It shares in the shark's kills.Egg Laying
All fish hatch from eggs. Usually the females and males release the eggs and the milt (fish sperm) into the water. When they meet, the eggs are fertilized. Eggs may be released in long, sticky strings that cling to rocks or seaweed, or they may float on the surface, becoming part of the plankton. Many species simply dig a depression on the bottom of a lake and deposit the eggs there. Some eggs are covered with oddly shaped leathery cases . Sometimes the eggs are fertilized in the female's body and hatch there. Guppies and some of the sharks are “live born.” The young that hatches from the egg is known as a larva.The female sea horse lays her eggs in a pouch, like that of a kangaroo, on the abdomen of the male, where they stay until they hatch. Some male catfish carry the eggs in their mouths. Until the eggs hatch, in a month or so, the male is unable to eat. The male frogfish picks up the eggs deposited by the female and blows them from its mouth, along with bubbles of mucus. The mucus hardens around the egg mass and forms a light floating bag.The male three-spined stickleback builds a nest of waterweeds bound together with a sticky substance produced by the kidneys. The male then drives one or more females into the nest so that they will deposit their eggs there. The male Siamese fighting fish, or betta, makes a bubble nest on the surface of the water by blowing bubbles from its mouth, each coated with a sticky matter that prevents the bubble from bursting and makes it stick to the others. As the female releases the eggs, the male fertilizes them, catches them in his mouth, and places them in the nest, then drives the female away and guards the nest until the eggs hatch and the young can swim on their own. If an egg drops out, the male immediately returns it.
Some kinds of fish, among them the salmon and shad, are anadromous, breeding in fresh water but spending most of their lives in the sea. Others, such as the eel are catadromous, living in fresh water and going to sea to spawn.
Some fishes are sensitive to the rhythm of the tides. The silvery grunion appear in the surf off the southern California coast shortly after each full moon and each new moon from March through July. As the once- or twice-monthly high tide reaches its peak and begins to ebb, these little smeltlike fish ride ashore on the crest of a wave. With lightning speed the female digs a hole in the sand with her tail and lays her eggs. They are fertilized by the nearest male grunion before the fish wriggle back onto a receding wave to return to sea. Only 20 to 30 seconds have passed. The young hatch and are washed out to sea on the next high tide.
Deep-Sea Fish and Luminescence
In the dark abyss of the deep sea the only light is produced by the fish themselves. Some of them glow by means of a coating of luminous slime. Some have luminous bacteria on their bodies.The lantern-eye fishes, for example, have eye sockets in which live millions of bacteria that shine with their own light. Other fish have light organs, with lenses and reflectors, located on the skin surface. These lights can be turned on or off as the fish wishes. One type of the lantern fish has an upper row of red, blue, and violet lights, a lower row of red and orange lights, and red lights in the tail. Another fish looks like an ocean liner at night, with rows of glowing portholes along its sides.
Most fantastic of all are the various anglerfishes that use an electric bait. The line is a whiplike extension of the dorsal fin. At its tip is an electric-light “bulb” which acts as a lure. These fish are savage hunters. Huge mouths, hinged teeth that fold backward, and stomachs capable of being enormously extended permit them to swallow fish larger than themselves. Most of them have soft, thin bones and jellylike flesh and are either inky black or gray in color.
Migration and Hibernation
Long migrations are made by salmon and eels to spawn in the same waters in which they were born. Oceanic fish such as the tuna also migrate in search of food. Some freshwater fish hibernate. Carp spend the winter partly buried in lake mud. Pike and others move to deep water, where fishing enthusiasts catch them through holes cut in the ice.In tropical countries many fish sleep, or estivate, through the summer months when swamps and rivers dry up. Walking perch and lungfish bury themselves in mud, leaving only an air hole open, and breathe by means of their lungs. One of the gobies of the Ganges River delta digs a burrow and sleeps through the dry months with only the tip of its tail touching the water. It apparently breathes through its tail.Primitive Fish
Fish were the first backboned creatures to develop on Earth. In the Devonian Age and the Coal Age they were the chief type of animal life. Fish evolved along several different lines. The most primitive of all vertebrates are the lampreys and hagfishes. The backbone is a rod of gristle called a notochord. There are no jaws and no paired fins. The gills are formed unlike those in any other living fishes. The mouth is a round opening with a rasping tonguelike organ.Sharks, skates, and rays are a step higher in development. They have a skeleton of cartilage. The jaws are on the underside of the head. The body is covered with toothlike structures of enamel called denticles.
Fishes with a bony skeleton are the most highly developed. The bodies of their ancestors were covered with enamel plates. Gars still retain this hard protection. Related to these primitive fish are the sturgeon, paddlefish, and bowfin.
In the Devonian Age and the Coal Age, swamps and streams periodically dried up or became shallow and stagnant. The creatures living in them that were able to survive had to crawl on land and breathe air. They developed lunglike structures and fins with fleshy lobes within which were bony supports. From air-breathing, crawling creatures such as these developed amphibians, reptiles, birds, and all other kinds of backboned animals. The mudfish still have these simple lungs and fleshy lobed fins.
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