I was reading my fish book last night and I reached this ocean sunfish, also known as a mola mola. I thought it was a little strange that they drew the fish, like, turning right, but it turns out the fish just... ends? It literally doesn't have a tail part. That's the end of the fish.

mola mola underwater

This is a different species in the genus, but it's shaped the same, just a fish head with a big-ass dorsal and anal fins. I think it's kind of cute in a way. Because it doesn't have a tail, it "swings its dorsal fin and anal fin in a characteristic sculling motion", which seems to mean waving both fins in the same direction back and forth.

mola tecta underwater

But these photos with the fish alone don't really give a sense of the scale of these fish, and as it turns out, these fish are HUGE! A fin alone is nearly the size of a human!

mola tecta caught and suspended next to and towering over an adult human

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has mola mola in captivity, surprisingly, although they don't seem to be on display. It's astonishing they can healthily keep a fish this large (that isn't, like, a shark).

mola mola at the aquarium behind the glass

Here's a neat video of a mola mola swimming around, and then stopping by some smaller fish to get the parasites on its skin cleaned off:


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