Biggest Bony Fish
Mola-Mola is the biggest bony fish in the world, measuring easily 2.5 - 3 meters height, fin-to-fin. The biggest size officially recorded was 3.3 meters in length (head to tail) and 4.2 meters height (fin-to-fin) and weighing up to 2,300 kgs!
Mola-Mola are deep sea fish and prefers colder water. During certain months of the year due to current from Indian Ocean, they do come to a few dive sites around Bali for cleaning, and that's the best chance for scuba divers to see them reliably. Even then, it is still not shallow as they are mostly seen around 30-40 meters depth, still within the recreational diving limits of most scuba divers. However, water temperature can still be cold to divers, usually around 18-22 C.
The Mola-mola carries a lot of parasites (isopods), some of them can be fairly large in size; 2-3 cm and they are favourites of Bannerfishes and Angelfishes that do the 'cleaning' when the Mola-Mola comes to the shallows.
Earlier this year, a 3rd species of Mola was officially described from New Zealand.
The ocean sunfish or common mola (Mola mola) is the heaviest known bony fish in the world. Adults typically weigh between 247 and 1,000 kg (545–2,205 lb). The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the globe. It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally. Sunfish can be as tall as they are long when their dorsal and ventral fins are extended.
comments (4)
This Mola-Mola is a unique fish and deserves much more attention from 'non-divers'. They are odd, unique, huge, special and a lot more but not too colourful, which doesn't gives them the attention they deserves. Only scuba divers will fully appreciates all the challenges needed to get a close encounter with them :D Posted 7 years ago
Hope you get some opportunities to get back diving again in the future :D Posted 7 years ago