What makes fishes swim fast and live deep in the water. Some key features of fishes and different types of fishes.
In tropical seas, flying fish leap out of the water, gliding for up to 200 meters using wing-like fins, before dipping back into the sea. In the Indo-Pacific, a hunting sailfish can reach speeds of 110 kilometers per hour. That’s 11 times faster than Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps. It can then sick up its spiny dorsal fin like a brake, grinding to a dead halt, mid-swim.
Fish Form 101
Each of these physical feats is made possible by a fish’s form, which in most species is a smooth, elongated body, fins, and a tail. These features are shaped across thousands of fish species, each introducing its own variations on the theme to survive in extreme habitats.
Main Groups
What makes these features so commonplace in fish, and what does it reveal about more than 33,000 fish species that inhabit Earth’s rivers, lakes, and seas?
Body/Caudal Fin
Fish can be split into two main groups, according to the type of motion they favor. The first is body and caudal fin driven motion, and most fish species, about 85% fall into this group. Here, the body and tail are the primary propelling forces, with fins mainly playing a stabilizing and steering role.
Speed Thurst Control
This configuration suits many open-water species, which need speed, thurst and control for constant, efficient swimming. Eels lie at one extreme of this group. Known as anguilliform swimmers, their entire bodies undulate to generate a wave-like motion.
Subcarangiforms
Compared to anguilliform fish, species like salmon, trout, known as subcarangiforms, use about two-thirds of their body mass to generate motion, while carangiform swimmers, such as mackerel, only use about a third. Typically, the less of its mass a fish uses to generate motion, the more streamlined its shape.
At the other end of the spectrum from eels are ostraciiform species like boxfish, and thunniform swimmers like tuna. In these fish, the tails, also known as caudal fins, do the work. A tuna’s tail is attached by tendons to multiple muscles in its body. It powers the body like an engine, forcefully catapulting the bullet-like fish to speeds up to 69 kilometers per hour.
Median/Paired
The second major fish group relies on median and paired fin motion, meaning they’re propelled through the water predominantly by their fins. Fins allow fine-tuned movement at slow speeds, so this propulsion is typically found in fish that have to navigate complex habitats. Bottom dwelling fishes, like rays, fall into this group; using their huge pectoral fins, they can lift themselves swiftly off the sea floor. That conveniently allows them to inhabit shallows seas without being buffeted about by waves.
Similarly, shallow-water flatfish use their entire bodies as one big fin to hoist themselves up off the sand. Ocean sunfish lack tails, so they move around slowly by beating their wing-like median fins instead. Similarly movements are shared by many reef species, like the queen angelfish, surgeonfish, and wrasse. Their focus on fins has taken the demand off their bodies, many of which have consequently evolved into unusual and inventive shapes.
There are fishes within both groups that seem to be outliers. But if you look closer, you’ll notice that these common traits are disguised. Seahorses, for instance, don’t appear fish-shaped in any conventional way, yet they use their flexible dorsal fins as makeshift trails. A puuferfish may occasionally look more like a lethal balloon, but if it needs to swim rapidly, it will retract its spine. Handfish look like they have legs, but really these limb-like structures are fins, modified to help them amble across the sea floor.
For fish, motion underpins survival, so it becomes a huge evolutionary driver of form. The widespread features of fish have been maintained across tens of thousands of fish species, not to mention other ocean-dwelling animals, like penguins, dolphins, sea slugs and squids. And that’s precisely because they’ve proven so successful.
Can I simply say what a relief to find somebody who actually is aware of what theyre speaking about on the internet. You positively know find out how to deliver a difficulty to mild and make it important. More folks need to read this and perceive this aspect of the story. I cant believe youre no more popular since you positively have the gift.
Thank you for your appreciation. This site is here to spread know and I’m sure that the whole world is gonna me and the supporters like you. Once again thanks
Thanks for sharing excellent informations. Your web-site is very cool. I’m impressed by the details that you抳e on this blog. It reveals how nicely you perceive this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for more articles. You, my pal, ROCK! I found simply the information I already searched all over the place and simply couldn’t come across. What a great website.
Thank you for your appreciation and comment 🙏
Hello my friend! I wish to say that this article is awesome, nice written and include almost all vital infos. I抎 like to see more posts like this.
Thank you for your appreciation ☺. Sure more articles to be come in future. Stay connect ✨☺
It抯 really a cool and useful piece of info. I am glad that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
you’re really a good webmaster. The web site loading speed is amazing. It seems that you’re doing any unique trick. Furthermore, The contents are masterwork. you have done a fantastic job on this topic!
Thank you. I haven’t done anything special for the loading speed but yes I worked a lot on the content and this could be the reason why you comment regularly.
If you would like to grow your familiarity simply keep visiting this web page and be updated with the
latest information posted here.
Do you have a spam problem on this site; I also am a blogger,
and I was wanting to know your situation; many of us
have developed some nice procedures and we are looking to exchange solutions with other folks, why
not shoot me an e-mail if interested.
No, I ain’t facing any spam problem on the site right now. If I would face then I’ll definitely contact you.
Wow, this piece of writing is nice, my sister is analyzing these kinds of things, therefore I am going to convey her.
Thank you for your inspiring comment and share it only if you loved reading.
Thank you, I’ve just been searching for information about this subject for a long time and yours is the
greatest I have discovered till now. However, what about the
conclusion? Are you sure in regards to the supply?
I’m delighted to hear that you have found what you were searching for.
Hello it’s me, I am also visiting this web site
regularly, this web site is actually pleasant and the visitors are in fact sharing nice thoughts.
Hello, thank you for visiting the website regularly, and thank you once again for a comment.
Great web site. Plenty of helpful info here.
I’m sending it to several friends ans additionally sharing in delicious.
And naturally, thank you to your effort!
It’s wonderful that you are getting thoughts from this piece
of writing as well as from our discussion made at this time.
After exploring a number of the articles on your web page, I honestly like your way of blogging.
I book-marked it to my bookmark webpage list
and will be checking back in the near future. Please visit my web site as well and
let me know your opinion.
I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They are very convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for novices. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post.
Wow! This could be one particular of the most useful blogs We have ever arrive across on this subject. Actually Fantastic. I am also an expert in this topic so I can understand your effort.
I would like to express some appreciation to you for rescuing me from this type of trouble. After exploring throughout the the web and finding tricks which are not pleasant, I assumed my life was well over. Living without the answers to the difficulties you have sorted out through this article is a crucial case, and those that would have negatively affected my career if I hadn’t noticed your blog. Your main expertise and kindness in touching a lot of stuff was excellent. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t encountered such a thing like this. I can also at this point relish my future. Thanks for your time very much for your high quality and results-oriented help. I will not be reluctant to propose your web sites to any individual who should get guidance on this issue.
Thanks for the article, can I set it up so I receive an email sent to me whenever there is a new article?
Hello! Would you mind if I share your blog with my twitter group? There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content. Please let me know. Cheers
No problem, you can share
Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish only about gossips and net and this is actually irritating. A good site with interesting content, this is what I need. Thank you for keeping this web site, I’ll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.
There may be noticeably a bundle to learn about this. I assume you made certain good points in features also.
Thank you for your inspiring words.
I’m gone to convey my little brother, that he
should also visit this web site on regular basis to take updated
from newest reports.
I’m very happy to uncover this page. I want to to thank you for your time for this fantastic read!!
I definitely loved every part of it and i also have you saved as a favorite to
check out new things in your website.
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very
well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post.
I will certainly return.