- They are from the family Tetraodontidae.
- They are carnivorous in nature.
- They grow up to 3ft
- They are slow moving aquatic creatures.
- They use their elastic stomach and the ability to ingest huge amount of water (and even air when necessary) as a defense mechanism to turn themselves into virtually inedible ball several times their normal size.
- Almost all Pufferfish contains tetrotodoxin.
- They are bottom dwelling sharks, spending most their time at the sea floor.
- Most species attain maximum length of 4.1ft or less, but the largest, spotted Wobbegong, Orectolobus maculatus and banded Wobbegong Orectolobus halei reach about the height of 9.8ft.
- Wobbegong are camouflaged with a symmetrical pattern of bold markings which makes them to be referred to as carpet sharks.
- Manatees are from the family Trichechidae and genus Trichechus. They are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals.
- Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, as they are slow plant-eaters, peaceful and similar to cows on land.
- They often graze on water plants in tropical seas.
- They weigh as much as 590 kg They possess paddle like flippers.
- A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically organs, called the mantle).
- It is formed when an object enters the shell of an oyster, In order to protect itself from irritation, the oyster will quickly begin covering the uninvited visitor with layers of nacre, a mineral substance that fashions the mollusks shells.
- Layer upon layer of nacre also known as mother-of-pearl, coat the grain of sand until the iridescent gem is formed the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk (oyster).
- A natural pearl begins its life intruder, such as a grain inside an oyster’s shell when an of sand or bit of floating food, slips in between one of the two shells of the oyster, a protective layer that covers the mollusk.
Sources; http://www.livescience.com/32289-how-do-oysters-make-pearls.html
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/pearl
Image from; Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:GNU_Free_Documentation_License)
- The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) fr the family Cetorhinidae is the second-largest living shark, after the whale shark.
- It is a filter feeder.
- Adults typically reach 7.9 m (26 ft) in length. They are usually greyish brown, with mottled skin.
- It is found in all world’s temperate ocean.
- its common name derives from its habit of feeding at the surface, appearing to be basking in the warmer water there.
- The megamouth shark (Megachasma pelagios) from the Megachasmidae family is a species of deepwater shark.
- These sharks are rarely seen by humans. They are filter feeders.
- They were discovered in 1976.
- They swim with its enormous mouth wide open, filtering water for plankton and jellyfish. It is distinctive for its large head with rubbery lips.
Image from; ABP (https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.abplive.com/lifestyle/terrifying-fisherman-catches-rare-megamouth-shark-in-japan-325020/amp)
- The mosquitofish From the family Poeciliidae is a freshwater fish.
- They are small sized fishes with females reaching a maximum length of 7 cm (2.8 in) and males a maximum length of 4 cm (1.6 in).
- The name “mosquitofish” was given because the fish eats mosquito larvae, and has been used more than any other fishes for the biological control of mosquitoes.
Source; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquitofish
Image from; Wikipedia
- The octopus is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda, within the class (Cephalopoda) with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids.
- The mouth is at the centre point of the eight limbs.
- The octopus through it soft body can rapidly alter it shape enabling it to penetrate through small gaps.
- The octopus has excellent sight and is among the most intelligent invertebrates.
- The Black Moor Goldfish is egg-shaped with a short, stubby body and large eyes protruding from either side of its head.
- It is from the family Cyprinidae.
- It can live up to 15 years.
- it an omnivore.
Source; http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/goldfish/BlackMoor.php
- It is from the species of the longtail carpet shark, from the family Hemiscylliidae.
- The common name of this shark comes from the very large, white-margined black spot behind each pectoral fin, which are reminiscent of military epaulettes.
Image from; Pinterest (aquariumdomain.com)
- Turritopsis dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish, is a species of small, biologically immortal jellyfish.
- it is from the family oceaniidae It is found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the waters of Japan.
Image from; Source: Wikimedia Commons
- The kelp is a brown algae from the Laminaria species.
- They are found in marine environment.
- They grow up to 70m.
- They make up the marine forest
- There make up the forest in the water body as well.
Image from Oceanlight (credit; Phillip Colla)
- They are a group of soft-bodied, marine gastropod molluscs.
- They shed their shells after their larval stage.
- They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given colourful nicknames to match, such as “clown”,”marigold”,”splendid”, “dancer”, and “dragon”.
- Currently, about 3,000 valid species of nudibranchs are known.
- The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)is a species of requiem shark and the only extant member of the genus Galeocerdo. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over 5m (16 ft 5 in).
- Tiger shark teeth are unique with very sharp, pronounced serrations and an unmistakable sideways-pointing tip. Such dentition has developed to slice through flesh, bone, and other tough substances such as turtle.
Image from; Oceana.org
- The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia including Tasmania.
- It is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus) though a number of related species appear in fossil record.
- They can live up to 15 years or more in captivity.
Source; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/platypus
Image from; Pinterest (Susana Opazo Rodriguez)
- The giant clam is appropriately named, as it is the largest clam and the largest bivalve (clam, oyster, or mussel) in the world.
- This species lives on coral reefs in the Coral Triangle and surrounding areas.
- The majority of their energy is derived from symbiotic algae living within their cells, providing the clams with excess energy that they make via photosynthesis.
- In return, the algae have a safe place to live and receive the nutrients necessary to photosynthesize.
Source https://oceana.org/marine-life/corals-and-other-invertebrates/giant-clams
- The leatherback turtle is the largest living turtle on the planet.
- Unlike all other marine turtles, the leatherback turtle does not have a hard, bony carapace (shell). Instead, as its name implies, it has a tough, rubbery shell that is composed of cartilage-like tissues.
- Leatherbacks spend almost all of their time in the ocean with females only coming to shore to lay eggs. Males will never be out of the water again during egg laying by females and are therefore more difficult to study than females.
- When foraging, leatherback turtles are known to dive down to nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) – which is deeper than any other turtle and most marine mammals.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/Sea-turtles-and-birds/leatherback-Turtle
- The humpback whale is a charismatic species of large whale that has a truly global distribution.
- The scientific name for humpback whales, Megaptera, translates to “big-winged” in reference to their long pectoral fins.
- Interestingly, though they are enormous, humpback whales are not predatory.
- They filter feed for tiny krill or small pelagic fishes and are totally harmless to people (other than through accidental collisions).
- Male humpback whales create and sing songs that can be heard up to 20 miles away.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/marine-mammals/Humpback-whale.
- The walrus is one of the most charismatic species of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, noted for the very large size of the ivory tusks.
- The walrus’s tusks are actually greatly elongated canine teeth. Both males and females have tusks, with the males’ being much longer.
- Walruses are foraging predators that feed on a variety of bottom invertebrates, including shellfish, worms, crabs, etc. and perhaps some fishes.
- Walruses are terrestrial, marine mammals, meaning they can swim in the ocean and walk on land and sea ice.
It has very large teeth that stick out of its mouth, even when closed, giving it a ferocious appearance. They have long, eel-like bodies and are sometimes known as “wolf eels” but are not eels. Instead, they are advanced fish that are closely related to sculpins. These fish are restricted to the cold waters of the north Atlantic Ocean, and their blood contains several natural compounds that prevent it from freezing.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/Oceans-fishes/atlantic-wolf-fish
The stoplight loosejaw is named for the two specialized light-producing organs that are located below each eye. One is green and one is red. There is very little light at the stoplight loosejaw’s preferred depth – 1700 to 13,000 feet (500-4000 m) below the sea surface. This species likely utilizes its light organs to visually locate prey. The red organ, in particular, is valuable because most species at those depths cannot see red light. Furthermore, the mouth is not covered with skin, so these fish rely on their long, needle-like teeth to capture the prey and manipulate it for swallowing whole.
SOURCE: https://oceana.org/marine-life/oceans-fishes/stoplight-loosejaw
The brown pelican is a common seabird found throughout the Americas and is an iconic symbol of the Gulf of Mexico. The brown pelican, like all seabirds, gets most of its food from marine sources. This species’ preferred prey includes small schooling fishes, like anchovies, sardines, and silversides. They feed by plunge diving. Brown pelicans generally feed close to shore, avoid the open ocean, and spend much of their time resting onshore.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/sea-turtle-and-birds/brown-pelican
The cookiecutter shark is one of the most interesting sharks in the ocean, and it never grows bigger than 18-20 inches (~50 cm). It gets its common name from its feeding strategy of biting off small chunks of much larger animals. It feeds off larger animals, without killing them. It uses its sharp, pointed upper teeth to latch on the skin of a much larger shark, bony fish, or marine mammal and its thick, strong, triangular lower teeth to scoop out a mouth-sized chunk of flesh.These sharks are covered with light organs, likely used for either communication or camouflage.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/oceans-fishes/the-cookie-cutter-shark
The giant manta ray is the largest ray and one of the largest fishes in the world. Reaching widths of up to 29 feet (8.8 m). They constantly swim along with their large mouths open, filtering plankton and other small food from the water. Giant manta rays are found worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate waters and are commonly seen offshore, in oceanic waters, and near productive coastlines.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/rays-and-sharks/mantra-ray
The Antarctic krill is an extremely common, pelagic crustacean native to the waters surrounding Antarctica and is one of the most important prey species near the bottom of Southern Ocean food webs. Antarctic krill are filter feeders that eat tiny phytoplankton (pelagic algae). They use their small, hair-like legs to filter out microscopic algae that bloom in the nutrient-rich waters around Antarctica. Before molting, an individual begins building a new, larger skeleton inside the existing one. As it gets too big to be contained, it splits open the outer shell, and the new exoskeleton hardens.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/crustaceans-and-shellfishes/antartic-krill
Atractosteus spatulais the scientific name for Alligator gar. The name spatula was derived from a latin word that describes a flat piece. The name of this species is based on its physical characteristics with the alligator and the fully scaled body. The scales and head of alligator gar is sometimes used by Native Americans to make arrowheads and axes. The Alligator gar has a giant heavy weight appearance measuring up to 10 feet and 350 pounds. It is known to be the largest of all the gar species and biggest freshwater species in North America. Despite being among one of the biggest freshwater organisms in the world, its scary appearance and large teeth does not pose any risk to humans. The largest alligator gar was captured in Mississippi and it weighed 327 pounds.
Source: https://a-z-animals.com/animals/alligator-gar/
Image source: https://a-z-animals.com/animals/alligator-gar/
The blobfish also called smooth-head blobfish and commonly referred to as fathead sculpins. They are generally whitish or light grey in colour. The bolbfish is very ugly with a scary appearance that looks like a gelatinous older man whose face has begun to melt. They move primarily when they want to feed they are not very active. They have a gelatinous look when they come to the surface of the water. The gelatinous look is due to little or no skeleton and little muscle.
Source: https://a-z-animals.com/animals/blobfish/
Image source: https://a-z-animals.com/animals/blobfish/
These sharks belongs to the Dalatiidae family and the there are two species of cookiecutter shark: The Isistius brasiliensis known as cookiecutter shark while the Isistius plutodus is known as the large cookiecutter shark. At any location the cookiecutter shark has the largest teeth of any shark present. It’s called the cookiecutter shark because it leaves a cookie shape bite hole on its prey. The underside of the shark has an eerie green glow due to the presence of photophores. After the shark dies this glow can last up to 3 hours. They are parasitic in nature, the females are larger than the males.
Source: https://a-z-animals.com/animals/cookiecutter-shark/
Image source: Wikipedia
The Euryale ferox is an aquatic plant known as prickly waterlily or gorgon plant. It is a specie of water lily found in southern and eastern Asia. The aquatic plant is known to produce bright purple flowers. The aquatic plant is known for its large and round leaves which is often more than a meter (3 feet) across, with a leaf stalk attached in the centre of the lower surface. At the underside of the leave is purple in colour while the upper region is green. The aquatic plant is known to produce edible starchy white seeds. These seeds are food in Asia. They are called fox nuts or makhana when dried.
Image Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
This is an aquatic plant for fresh water aquarium and is known to be grown in wide range of conditions. They usually grow to a very large size, up to 20 inches tall and are able to survive under Low level of nutrients and lights. The new is derived from it’s physical appearance. The Amazon sword plant has leaves that looks like sword.
Image Source: https://aquariumadviser.com/10-best-plants-for-freshwater-aquarium/
Source: https://aquariumadviser.com/10-best-plants-for-freshwater-aquarium/
The barnacle is a type of arthropod that makes up the Cirripedia subset. By being in the subphylum Crustacea, it’s related to shrimps, woodlice, crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are special kinds of marine that often live in shallow and tidal waters, precisely in erosive environment. They are regarded as sessile (i.e immobile) of which most of them are suspension feeders, but the Rhizocephala in the infraclass are highly distinguished parasites on crustaceans. They have four nektonic (i.e they can actively swim independently) larval stages. In addition, about 1,000 of the barnacle species have been identified currently. The study of barnacles is referred to as cirripedology.
Mussel are characterized by many of bivalve mollusks belonging to Mytilidae (a marine family) and Unionidae (freshwater family). Globally, they are mostly seen in cool seas. Freshwater mussels, which can also be referred to as naiads, they include about 1,000 known species that are inhabitants of lakes, streams, and ponds in most parts of the world. Marine mussels are usually pear-shaped or wedge-shaped and their size ranges from about 5 to 15 centimeters (i.e about 2 to 6 inches). They, sometimes have ribs or may be smooth ribbed with a furry (hairy covering). Many of its species have a dark-blue or dark greenish-brown shells on the outside; while on the inside, they are usually pearly. The proteinaceous threads is responsible for making them get attached to one another or to solid objects; they occur usually in dense clusters.Their principal enemies are herring gulls, oystercatchers, ducks, starfishes etc.
Aquatic mammals within the infraorder Cetacea are commonly named Dolphin. Dolphin as a term, usually refers to the extant families Delphinidae also known as oceanic dolphins, Platanistidae also known as the Indian river dolphins, Iniidae also known as the New World river dolphins, Pontoporiidae also known as the brackish dolphins, and finally the extinct Lipotidae also known Chinese river dolphin. About 40 extant species are referred to as dolphins. They have variety of sizes, ranging from comparatively small 1.7-metre-long (5 ft 7 in) long and 50-kilogram (110-pound) bodied Maui’s dolphin to about 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in) and 10-tonne killer whale. They can sometimes leap about 30 feet (9.1 m). A good number of the dolphins’ species exhibit sexual dimorphism, due to the fact that the males are larger than females. Physically, their appearance is that of a streamlined body. In addition, they have two limbs that are enhanced into flippers. Some dolphins can travel at a speeds of 29 kilometres (18 miles) per hour for short distances, although, not as flexible as seals.
Eel is a ray-finned fish that belongs to the order of Anguilliformes which is made up of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. They undergo sufficient developmental stages, from early larval to the final adult stage. It is worth mentioning that most of them are predators. The term “eel” can be used while referring to other eel-shaped fishes, for example, electric fish commonly referred to as genus Electrophorus, spiny eels (belonging to family Mastacembelidae), and deep-sea spiny eels (belonging to family Notacanthidae). Eels inhabit in both salt water and fresh water and some of its species are catadromous. They feed on marine snow while moving on the sea water surface. The early stages of their lives starts as transparent larvae.
Rays are primarily marine and can be seen in all oceans. Many of which are sluggish-moving bottom dwellers. They are of different types, the Manta rays feed on little animals and plankton; while others feed on various fishes and invertebrates, this, sometimes causes damage to commercially invaluable shellfish beds. They can be classified under: sawfishes, electric rays, skates, and other families of rays such as stingrays whip-tailed rays (rays that have slender, whiplike tails furnished with spines). The electric rays is peculiar, in the sense that it can give a powerful shock as a defence mechanism or to kill prey, as a result of a large paired electron between the head and pectoral fins. At about 20 of its species are known to live in warm seas, with some having a weight of 200 pounds (90 kg).
They are almost ubiquitous, having about 85 species globally and are the major source of food for blue whales as the whales feed almost completely on krill, consuming up to four tons of krill daily. Although this affects their abundance, they are able to maintain their population because of their ability to lay about 10,000 eggs at a go.
Source: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/01/27/krill/
Image source: http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/nature/files/2008/06/image_krill.jpg
The Angelfish is known to be popular with aquarists for its attractiveness and hardiness. It has the ability to tell what time is in a similar way as dogs, and this makes them navigate to the aquarium entrance as their feeding period approaches.
Source: https://www.tropicalfishcareguides.com/aquarium-fish/angelfish-care-guide/
Image source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d5/6b/1c/d56b1c172eaabf3ffba08fd715bac72f.jpg
The name comes from its body composition, with spines covering its arms and body which they use for movement and protection. When cut, their arms have the ability regrow arms and sometimes in severe conditions, regeneration takes place from just half of the organism. They cause great harm to coral reefs as they prey on corals.
Source: https://oceana.org/marine-life/crown-thorns-starfish/
Image source: https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/crown_of_thorns_starfish_1050x700.jpg
The Emperor shrimp is known for its commensal association with sea cucumbers and larger species of Nudibranch, in which case it is said to be “Hitch Hiking”, staying on their backs. From this association, it gets protection as well as its food which includes animals and decaying organic matter. It has also been noted that they feed on their host’s eggs (sea cucumber in this case), during the spawning period of their host.
Source: https://www.siladen.com/facts-about-the-commensal-emperor-shrimp/
Image source: https://live.staticflickr.com/7373/11890044285_1b5704bb5d_b.jpg
From records, the males have been observed to live up a maximum of 10 years and the female 14 years, and at this age, they are able to grow up to 200cm. They are used as a food delicacy since they are edible, hence, there is pressure from commercial fisheries. Although, there is no data to analyse its population growth or decline.
Source: wikipedia
Image source : https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2a/91/69/2a91692c1224607472bd56976f67d03b–saltwatner-fishing.jpg
