Giant sunfish

Uncommon card · No. 155533

The giant sunfish or bumphead sunfish (Mola alexandrini), also known as the Ramsay's sunfish, southern sunfish, southern ocean sunfish, short sunfish or bump-head sunfish, is a fish belonging to the family Molidae. It is closely related to the more widely known Mola mola, and is found in the Southern Hemisphere. With a specimen found in the Azores in 2021 weighing 2744 kg (6049 lb), being by large the heaviest extant ray-finned fish in the world . It can be found basking on its side occasionally near the surface, which is thought to be used to re-heat itself after diving in cold water for prey, recharge its oxygen stores, and attract gulls to free itself of parasites.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Photo by Erik van der Goot, used with permission, provided to FishBase by Marianne Nyegaard, CC BY-SA 4.0