Dr. Martin Gomon, Museum Victoria, Australien
Info
Very special thanks for his photo of Mola tecta to Dr. Martin F. Gomon / Museums Victoria, Australia.
Mola tecta is one of three scientifically described moonfish species, these are:
Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839)
Mola tecta (Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue & Stewart, 2017)
Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758)
There are some reports on the internet of another species, Mola ramsayi (Giglioli, 1883), but it is only a "junior synonym", a name that describes the same species as an earlier published name, in this case Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839).
(Personal communication from Dr. Marianne Nyegaard (Australia).
The moonfish Mola tecta is classified as "circumglobal", i.e. "present around the globe", but this is not quite correct, as the fish is not native to Actic waters.
The menu of this large and heavy fish mainly includes jellyfish, jellyfish and salps, although small fish are also occasionally eaten.
The large body of the moonfish offers a variety of parasites the opportunity to settle on the animal's skin and eat it.
To get rid of these annoying parasites as quickly as possible, Mola tecta seeks out the popular cleaning stations, although cleaner wrasses and cleaner shrimps are of little help in this case and larger cleaners such as angelfish and bannerfish are used.
On March 2, 2019, a report on the discovery of a dead moonfish on the coast of Santa Barbara (California) caused a sensation, as the moonfish, which was only described in 2017, is not considered native.
We have included the report in the further links.
Due to its size and weight, Mola tecta is not suitable for aquariums, unless someone owns a tank with several million liters :-)
Mola tecta is one of three scientifically described moonfish species, these are:
Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839)
Mola tecta (Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue & Stewart, 2017)
Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758)
There are some reports on the internet of another species, Mola ramsayi (Giglioli, 1883), but it is only a "junior synonym", a name that describes the same species as an earlier published name, in this case Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839).
(Personal communication from Dr. Marianne Nyegaard (Australia).
The moonfish Mola tecta is classified as "circumglobal", i.e. "present around the globe", but this is not quite correct, as the fish is not native to Actic waters.
The menu of this large and heavy fish mainly includes jellyfish, jellyfish and salps, although small fish are also occasionally eaten.
The large body of the moonfish offers a variety of parasites the opportunity to settle on the animal's skin and eat it.
To get rid of these annoying parasites as quickly as possible, Mola tecta seeks out the popular cleaning stations, although cleaner wrasses and cleaner shrimps are of little help in this case and larger cleaners such as angelfish and bannerfish are used.
On March 2, 2019, a report on the discovery of a dead moonfish on the coast of Santa Barbara (California) caused a sensation, as the moonfish, which was only described in 2017, is not considered native.
We have included the report in the further links.
Due to its size and weight, Mola tecta is not suitable for aquariums, unless someone owns a tank with several million liters :-)
