Ocean Fishes Archives | Page 3 of 7 | Oceana

White-ring Garden Eel

Garden eels burrow tail first into the sand, and several individuals (as many as hundreds) live close to each other, forming “gardens” of eels that sway back and forth and bob up and down like prairie dogs in order to balance their need to feed with the security that their burrows provide. The white-ring garden … Read more

French Angelfish

French angelfish are foragers and eat a variety of sessile invertebrates and plants, including sponges, algae, soft corals, tunicates, and others. Juveniles clean parasites and loose scales off of large fishes, including some that are predatory. French angelfish typically forage in pairs. In fact, they are almost always observed in pairs, which they form for mating and to … Read more

Wahoo

Wahoo are powerful swimmers and aggressive predators that feed on a variety of schooling fishes and pelagic squids. Unlike the true tunas and the billfishes, this species does not have the ability to regulate its body temperature, but it is still one of the open ocean’s fastest fishes. When excited – particularly when hunting – wahoo often … Read more

Common Dolphinfish

The common dolphinfish is an open ocean predator that eats small fishes, squids, and pelagic crustaceans. It is also an important prey species for sharks, billfishes, and other large predators. Therefore, much like the skipjack tuna, the common dolphinfish plays a vital intermediate role in open ocean food webs. The males are larger than females and reach lengths of … Read more

Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish

Tropical two-wing flyingfish feed on plankton crustaceans and other small invertebrates. They have large eyes and excellent eyesight and can therefore hunt and eat individual plankton. This is in stark contrast to the very large-bodied filter feeders (like the whale shark or basking shark), which blindly filter huge volumes of water in order to obtain sufficient food. Tropical two-wing … Read more

Coelacanth

Coelacanths live in deep waters off of southeastern Africa. Only once fishers started fishing deeper and deeper was this species discovered. Before that time, this entire family of fishes was only known from fossils. Coelacanths reach lengths over 6.5 feet (2 m) and are nocturnal predators. They spend daylight hours hiding in caves and other dark spaces and … Read more

Summer Flounder

Like all flatfishes, summer flounder have both of their eyes on the same side of their heads, and they live on the seafloor, lying on their blind side, with their eyes facing the open water column. This species is one of several “sand flounders,” with both eyes on the left side of the head. Amazingly, when they … Read more

Chilean Common Hake

Chilean common hake are generalist predators and eat a variety of benthic prey. They are known to eat squids, crustaceans, and other invertebrates and several species of bony fishes. Though they spend most of their lives associated with the seafloor, Chilean common hake sometimes hunt in the water column. Females have faster growth rates and reach larger sizes – … Read more

Spotted Ratfish

Like sharks and rays, the chimaeras have skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. This characteristic links those three groups of fishes and distinguishes them from the bony fishes. The spotted ratfish is a generalist predator and eats a variety of invertebrates and fishes associated with the seafloor. These include crabs, clams, and other hard-shelled prey, and the … Read more

California Grunion

California grunion are plankton eaters; they eat small, pelagic crustaceans and other zooplankton. Though they eat very small prey, they use their relatively large eyes and strong eyesight to attack individual prey. This strategy is in stark contrast to that used by the very large bodied filter feeders (like whale sharks and basking sharks), which essentially feed blindly … Read more