The heaviest modern bone fish, living in ocean waters, is the Common Moonfish, a member of the family of the same name Moonfish. In some countries it is also called sunfish or headfish.
Sunfish very rarely gather in groups of more than two individuals. 
Geography of habitat
The sunfish lives in the waters of all oceans of tropical and subtropical latitudes; during spawning, the fish migrate to tropical waters. So, in the east of the Pacific Ocean this fish lives from Canada to the southern regions of Peru and Chile, in Indian Ocean fish can be found everywhere, right up to the Red Sea. IN Atlantic Ocean they live from the Scandinavian Peninsula to South Africa. They also meet near Kuril Islands and in the Sea of Japan.
You can meet these amazing fish at a depth of up to 850 meters. According to research by scientists, almost 80% of the time these fish are at a depth of about 200 meters, and the rest of the time, they rise to a depth of 10 meters.
Moonfish in the company of divers. 
Sunfish in the water column. 
Sunfish in the water column. Appearance
Even looking at the photo of the moon fish, it is difficult to imagine how unusual it looks. Their body is quite short, high and flattened on the sides - this physique gives it an unusual appearance, making it look like a disk. They do not have a tail fin, but pelvic girdle reduced Instead of the caudal fin and them, there is a “pseudo-tail” - a cartilaginous plate formed by the spinal and cartilaginous fin. Pelvic and caudal fins are absent.
The moonfish's mouth ends in a beak formed by fused teeth. The fish have no scales, and the skin is covered with cat growths and mucus. The color of adult sunfish can be from brown to gray-silver with a variegated pattern - it all depends on the habitat. Average length adult individuals are about 1.8 m, height can reach 3 m, and weight varies from 250 to 1600 kg.
Moonfish: front view. 
Quite a large specimen of the sunfish. 
Moon fish, also called sun fish. Nutrition and behavior
The basis of the diet of the sunfish consists of: oceanic plankton, salps, ctenophores and jellyfish, in addition they can feed on small fish and crustaceans, eel larvae, sponges, starfish, squid, since this food is not particularly high in calories, the fish is forced to absorb it in huge quantities. This diet confirms that these fish can feed both on the surface and at depth.
As a rule, these fish live alone, less often in pairs. They are not considered good swimmers, as they maximum speed a little over 3 km/h. Pisces moons don't live in too warm water, if the temperature rises to 12°C, then the fish lose orientation in space and may even die.
The natural enemies of the sunfish are sea lions , killer whales And sharks.
Sunfish head close-up. 
Sunfish among smaller fish. 
Old sunfish. Reproduction
The head fish is the most prolific creature in the ocean - during one spawning, the female is capable of laying about 300 million eggs with a diameter of about 0.1 cm. Newborn fry weigh about 0.01 grams and look like puffer fish, however time will pass and the size of the fish will increase 60 million times - only these fish have such a huge ratio from birth to adulthood.
The average lifespan of these fish in captivity is about 10 years, in natural conditions 16-23 years.
Giant sunfish. 
Sunfish in the aquarium. 
Sunfish near the surface of the water. - The brain mass of this oceanic giant is 4 grams.
- If you put all the sunfish eggs in a chain, its length will be about 30 km.
- There is a toxin in the body of these fish, so it is undesirable to eat it, and if you eat caviar, milt or liver, it can be fatal.
- Sunfish are often kept in captivity, but sometimes these fish die when they crash against the walls of the aquarium.
- The spinal cord of the sunfish is shorter than the head, length no more than 15 mm.
When you meet this fish in the ocean, you can be seriously scared. Of course, a colossus 3-5 meters long and weighing several tons is capable of inspiring fear with its size and completely implausible appearance.
In fact, the sunfish is completely harmless, because it feeds on jellyfish, ctenophores, small fish, crustaceans and other zooplankton, which, unfortunately, happen to be next to it. This fish does not know how to maneuver and swim quickly in pursuit of prey, but only sucks into its mouth-beak everything edible that happens to be nearby.
Because of its rounded shape, in many languages of the world this unusual creature is called a moonfish, or a sunfish, due to its habit of basking in the sun while swimming on the surface. Translation German name means “floating head”, in Polish it means “lonely head”, the Chinese call this fish an “overturned car”. In Latin, the most numerous genus of these fish is called mola, which means “millstone”. The fish earned this name not only by its body shape, but also by its grey, rough skin.
Sunfishes belong to the order Pufferfishes, which includes pufferfishes and urchinfishes, with which they have much in common. First of all, these are four fused front teeth that form a characteristic non-closing beak, which gave Latin name order - Tetraodontiformes (four-toothed). The family of moonfish, or moonfish, (Molidae) is united by the unusual appearance of these millstone-like animals. It seems that at the dawn of evolution someone took a bite out of the fish back bodies immediately behind the dorsal and anal fins, and they survived and gave birth to equally strange offspring.
Indeed, representatives of this family have fewer vertebrae than other bony fish, for example, the species mola mola - there are only 16 of them, the pelvic girdle is completely reduced, the caudal fin is absent, and instead there is a tuberous pseudo-tail. The family Molidae includes three genera and five species of sunfish:
Sharptail sunfish, Sharptail mola, Masturus lanceolatus
Masturus oxyuropterus
Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Southern sunfish, Mola ramsayi
Slender sunfish, Slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis.
Almost all members of the sunfish family live in tropical, subtropical, and sometimes temperate waters. They all reach large sizes and have a rounded, laterally compressed shape of the head and body. They have rough skin, no tail bones, and a skeleton made mostly of cartilage. Sunfishes do not have bony plates in their skin, but the skin itself is thick and dense, like cartilage. They are painted in brown, silver-gray, white, sometimes with patterns. These fish lack a swim bladder, which disappears when early stages larval development.
Sunfish are the largest of the bony fish. The largest mola mola measured was 3.3 m long and weighed 2.3 tons. There are reports that fish were caught that reached a length of more than five meters. In the process of development from larvae to adults, all sunfish go through several stages of development, and all forms are completely different from each other. The larvae that hatch from the eggs resemble pufferfish, then wide bony plates appear on the body of the grown larvae, which are subsequently preserved only in fish of the genus Ranzania; in the mole and masturus, the protrusions on the plates gradually turn into sharp long spines, which then disappear. The caudal fin and swim bladder gradually disappear, and the teeth merge into a single plate.
Moonfish - (lat. Mola mola), translated from Latin as millstone. This fish can be more than three meters long and weigh about one and a half tons. The largest specimen of the sunfish was caught in New Hampshire, USA. Its length was five and a half meters, there is no data on weight. The shape of the fish’s body resembles a disk; it was this feature that gave rise to the Latin name.
The most studied are the moonfish of the genus Mola. Fish of the genus Masturus are very similar to mola mola, but they have an elongated pseudo-tail and the eyes are more forward. There was an opinion that these fish are anomalous mola, which retained a larval tail, but studies have shown that during the growth of the fish, the rays of the pseudo-tail appear after the reduction of the larval one. Somewhat different from other sunfish are representatives of the genus Ranzania, which reach a small size of 1 m and have a flatter and elongated body shape.
All moonfish use very long and narrow anal and dorsal fins when moving, flapping them like a bird's wings, while small pectoral fins serve as stabilizers. To steer, fish spit a strong stream of water from their mouths or gills. Despite their love to bask in the sun, sunfish live at a respectable depth of several hundred and sometimes thousands of meters.
It is reported that sunfish can produce sounds by rubbing their pharyngeal teeth, which are long and claw-like.
In 1908, this moonfish was caught 65 kilometers off the coast of Sydney; it became entangled in the propellers of the steamship Fiona, which is why the ship was unable to move further. At that time it was the largest specimen of the moon fish caught, it reached a length of 3.1 m and a width of 4.1 m. Photo: danmeth
Sunfish are record holders for the number of eggs laid; one female is capable of laying several hundred million eggs. Despite this fecundity, the number of these extraordinary fish is declining. In addition to natural enemies that prey on larvae and adults, the sunfish population is threatened by humans: in many Asian countries they are considered medicinal and are caught on a large scale, although there is information that the meat of these fish contains toxins, like those of hedgehog fish and puffer fish, and in internal organs There is a poison called tetrodotoxin, just like puffer fish.
The moon fish has thick skin. It is elastic, and its surface is covered with small bony projections. The larvae of fish of this species and young individuals swim in the usual way. Adults large fish swim on their sides, quietly moving their fins. They seem to lie on the surface of the water, where they are very easy to notice and catch. However, many experts believe that only sick fish swim this way. As an argument, they cite the fact that the stomach of fish caught on the surface is usually empty.
Compared to other fish, the sunfish is a poor swimmer. She is unable to fight the current and often floats at the will of the waves, without a goal. This is observed by sailors, noticing the dorsal fin of this clumsy fish.
In the Atlantic Ocean, the moonfish can reach Great Britain and Iceland, the coast of Norway, and even go further north. IN Pacific Ocean in summer you can see moonfish in the Sea of Japan, more often in the northern part, and near the Kuril Islands.
Although the moonfish looks quite menacing due to its impressive size, it is not scary to humans. However, there are many signs among sailors South Africa who interpret the appearance of this fish as a sign of trouble. This is probably due to the fact that the sunfish approaches the shore only before the weather worsens. The sailors associate the appearance of the fish with an approaching storm and rush to return to shore. Such superstitions also arise due to unusual looking fish and its swimming method.
Scientific classification:
Domain: Eukaryotes
Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordates
Class: Ray-finned fish
Squad: Pufferfish
Family: Moonfish (lat. Molidae (Bonaparte, 1832))
How to draw a bird - watercolor painting lesson
Drawing a forest bird
Today I will tell you how to draw a forest bird. It's best to paint with a group. Call your loved ones, friends or relatives. Drawing can be a wonderful pastime for you. Not only will you have a great time with people close to you, but you will also take another step in understanding the art of drawing.
First, we make a small, barely visible sketch of the bird, almost without drawing any details.
We attach a sheet of paper to the tablet using weak masking tape (paper). First, I wet the paper around it, leaving the bird itself dry. Then, with a movement of the brush, I applied several strokes of ultramarine and a mixture of yellow and red ocher. Watch how the paint spreads.
You can also add strokes if you are not happy with the result. We also cover the bird’s wings with a translucent tone of bright blue. On the head we use a mixture of violet and ultramarine. And we cover the bird’s breast with an almost transparent color, using all the colors that were suggested above.
We begin to clarify the details. We draw the eye in black and outline the branch in brown. Darken the chest with sepia or umber. Apply strokes to the wings and cover the beak with a light tone.
Now black can be taken to full strength of tone, we gradually increase the saturation, you need to be skillful, a master in order to put the right tone in the right place from the first strokes. Therefore, we will approach completion step by step.
Take a small brush and paint on the feathers. Here and there you can add strokes to the background. Now we're done!
