Talk:Ocean sunfish

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I uploaded a PD NOAA photo of Mola mola. IMHO that's a better representation than the line drawing. —Tkinias 18:50, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't someone refer to the fact that the Sunfish is the most prolific of all fish? --Lone Isle 07:45, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Okay, "bizarre?" Isn't that an odd adjective to be in the first sentence of an encyclopedia article? Especially since it's a rather common fish. Is bizarre more of an emotional word than belongs here? --asarkees

[edit] Size

I'm not sure about the size thing. Is there a reference for the fact that this fish is the most massive of fish? Even the whole oarfish thing is dubious. Let's face it, the Guiness book of world records is not an authoritative source. AFAIK, the whale shark is the largest fish. Good records put it at over 12m. How much does a 12m whale shark weigh in comparison to the largest Ocean sunfish? Is there a reference for any of this?

One thing I do know for a fact is that Mola mola is the most derived of the fishes. — Dave 16:33, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

This is not correct. Characters can be derived or ancestral, but species cannot -- all species are a combination of ancestral and derived characters. I've changed the text accordingly.— Sonitus 19:11, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

One other thing on the size issue. There is a clear conversion error in the article and it would be necessary to know which are the original units in order to fix the error. 13'10" is 4.2m; 3.3m is 10'10". Which is it? — Dave 16:42, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

I checked fishbase.org and found that Mola mola grows to 333 cm and 2300 kg. This compares to the whale shark which grows to 2000 cm and 34000 kg and the oarfish which grows to 1100 cm and 272 kg. Hence, the ocean sunfish is far from the largest of the fishes. I will alter the article appropriately. — Dave 04:48, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Whale shark

I don't know who is right, but the whale shark dimensions given here are much larger than what is stated in the whale shark entry, which says, "The greatest size accurately recorded was 12 meters (39 ft) long, with unofficial accounts of 18 meters (59 ft)." It would be good if these articles were consistent and the figures given in both were definitive.

Metamagician3000 11:43, 23 December 2005

Well, 'twas I who made that edit to this article. All I can say is that I pulled that size info right off of fishbase.org. I have no idea where the size info in the Whale shark article came from. — Dave 03:55, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

its the largest BONY fish sharks are cartilaginous but yeah the whale shark is the biggest fish --Moose15

[edit] Kick ass

God Sunfish kick so much ass. Whos with me? Zerath13

Dude, they rule. :) --Ethii 12:25, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

For what it's worth: ocean sunfish as fictional spacecraft in scrolling shooters: [1] [2]

Um, yeah, guys? Sunfish are teh win. Like, rly. --Boxyflol 23:02, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Wasn't a fan before I saw the 4chan /an/ thread and googled a bit on it. These fish kick ass.  :D --Korisu 10:34, 23 June 2006 (CST)

I hate sunfish. SO MUCH. I've got molaphobia, these things give me the jibblies. Thursday Postal 12:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Dude, I just caught an Ocean Sunfish on Animal Crossing Wild World and I was like "good god, this thing is huge" ^^;. I had to find out if it was real or not so I've been researching this fish for like ... 45 minutes, maybe o-o They're awesome. User:Anon 17:02, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Accuracy

I question this sentence:

Because of its very short and stiff body, it has no more than 16 vertebra, and the spinal cord is under 15 mm long (less than 0.5 in).

First, how can its spinal cord be only 15mm long? And second, 15mm is NOT less than a half inch. Also, we know that the length of a body doesn't necessarily correlate to more vertebrae, so is it actually true that the fish has 'only' 16 vertebra?--Anchoress 02:57, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Another questionable sentence: "They are reported to jump up to ten feet out of the water." Really? I have seen these fish. They are slow and sluggish. They have poor hydrodynamics. Elsewhere the article even says they are weak swimmers, as does the fishbase reference cited. How are they supposed to jump out of the water, let alone ten feet?! I have added an accuracy tag, as well as tagged sentences that cry out for citations. =Axlq 04:17, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, they're more like non-swimmers. The "ten feet out of the water" is pure BS.