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FACTS ABOUT: FISH xxxxxx

Definition: fish  Play fishpronunciation  A fish is an animal that lives in water and has fins for swimming and gills for breathing. Fish are cold-
blooded animals with skeletons inside their bodies. Most fish have scales on their skin.

Fun Facts

1. Flying fish can glide above the ocean surface for over 600 feet. To escape hungry predators like tuna or dolphins, flying fish build up speed underwater, launch into the air, and spread their giant wing-like pectoral fins to glide just above the waves at speeds of 35 miles per hour!


2. Fish "breathe" underwater using oxygen-extracting gills. Fish don't have lungs like humans; instead, as water flows through their mouths and out over their feather-like gills, tiny blood vessels absorb the dissolved oxygen gas trapped in the water while releasing carbon dioxide.


3. Parrotfish sleep inside a glowing bubble of their own snot. Before going to sleep at night in coral reefs, parrotfish produce a thick mucus cocoon from glands near their gills. This slime envelope masks their scent from nocturnal predators like eels and sharks while they rest!


4. Sharks do not have a single bone in their entire skeleton. Instead of hard bone, a shark's skeleton is made completely out of lightweight, flexible cartilage—the exact same flexible material that makes up the tip of your human nose and outer ears!


5. Fish have a "sixth sense" called the lateral line system. Running down both sides of a fish's body is a visible line of tiny fluid-filled pores packed with sensory hair cells. This line detects microscopic vibrations and pressure changes in the water, letting fish navigate in pitch darkness and swim in tight, synchronized schools without colliding.


6. Salmon use an incredible sense of smell to navigate home. After spending years swimming thousands of miles out in the open ocean, adult salmon swim back to the exact freshwater stream where they were born to lay their eggs, recognizing the unique chemical "fingerprint" scent of their home river.


7. Deep-sea anglerfish use a glowing fishing pole to catch dinner. Living thousands of feet below the surface where no sunlight reaches, female anglerfish grow a modified spine on their forehead tipped with a bioluminescent organ filled with glowing bacteria, which attracts curious prey straight into their sharp teeth!