WHY?! Why would nature create a being so useless that its very existence is only suffering and is not fit to survive in its own environment?
>>5012113 (OP)They reproduce more than they die
>Since molids are susceptible to skin parasites, they make use of cleaner fish. A molid in need of cleaning will locate a patch of floating algae or flotsam that is home to halfmoons. The molid signals a readiness for cleaning by swimming almost vertically with its head near the surface of the water, and waits for the smaller cleaner fish to feed on the parasite worms. Similarly, the molid may break the surface of the water with its dorsal fin and beak to attract the attention of a gull or similar seabird. The seabird will then dig worms and other stubborn parasites out of the molid's skin
That has to feel soooooooo good
Their weird body structure lets them descend to deeper depths than regular fishes with swim bladders, where they feed on jellyfish and deep sea creatures in the pelagic zone
They go horizontal on the surface and sun themselves (hence sunfish) to warm their bodies up for their next journey to the cold depths
People put gps trackers on sunfish and discovered they do this
sunfish are based and anyone who disagrees is probably a redditor
>>5012113 (OP)Sunfish still have better times surviving in the wild than Pandas btw.
>>5012113 (OP)Sunfish are a midwit trap.
They can be fast when they want to be, they're reasonably intelligent (for fish), and their niche of moderating jellyfish/squid/small crustacean populations is both successful and important.
>>5012283They're also surprisingly active, shooting up and down the water column to hunt multiple times a day. They can reach down to 600-800m and launch right back up to the surface without exploding like swimbladder cucks.
>>5012215My favorite thing is their precious skeleton, seriously beautiful!
>>5012181lol sunfish is like a food truck of the sea
>>5012580Their young get eaten by stuff like bluefin tuna and the adults are food for sharks, killer whales, and sea lions. They grow really fast. Theyโre only a threat to people when they jump out of the water and onto a boat and theyโre money makers with tourists because people like to swim with them. Also one species has a record size of over six thousand pounds which makes this the largest living boney fish species by weight if not length.
>>5012283I like that they turn into flat fish and swim sideways when they want a boost.
>>5012573If you dug this up as a fossil people wouldn't believe it.
>>5012114fpbp. This is the whole point of evolution.
>>5012573impressive tail, I'm admiring the bones