The most intriguing Mola Mola

Imagine a fish cut in half weighing as much as a 2.5 tons, which is the weight of a sizable car. This is the Mola Mola or Oceanic Sunfish. Mola Mola is actually the scientific name for this odd looking fish. With their closest relatives being the Puffer Fish and Trigger Fish. They are referred to as sunfish because these fish love to sun bathe ever so often after forays into the cold depths of the ocean. They do this by lying flat on the surface of the ocean to soak up the suns energy to heat their cold blooded bodies.

Since these fish lack a tail, they use their anal and dorsal fins for locomotion. This oddity survives off eating Jelly Fish and is know to devour the deadly Man of War, although Mola Mola will also eat other things such as squid and crustaceans. They are rather harmless to humans, so you should not fret seeing one of these behemoths swim at you. However, they are often plagued by parasites which tend congregate on their skins. Yes these fish have skin and not scales. They have evolved a novel method of parasite control. They will either swim up to the reefs edge and stay still while the smaller fish pick off the parasites. Additionally, they are know to lie flat on the waters surface like a dish floating on the surface sunbathing and allowing the sea birds to rid them of the undesirable freeloaders on their skin. So there you now know how I got the name for my blog.

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