The slender sunfish (''Ranzania laevis'') is a mola of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Molidae The Molidae comprise the family of the molas or ocean sunfishes, unusual fish whose bodies come to an end just behind the dorsal and anal fins, giving them a "half-fish" appearance. They are also the largest of the ray-finned bony fish, with the ...

, the only extant member of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

''Ranzania'',Matsuura, K. (2014): Taxonomy and systematics of tetraodontiform fishes: a review focusing primarily on progress in the period from 1980 to 2014. ''Ichthyological Research, 62 (1): 72-113.'' found globally in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

seas. Its length is up to 1 m (3.3 ft). Several stranding and mass stranding events have occurred on beaches near

Albany, Western Australia Albany ( ; nys, Kinjarling) is a port city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyc ...

. The first South Australian specimen was found at Aldinga in 1944. A cast was made from it, and a replica was made, painted and prepared for display at the South Australian museum that year. Several other individuals have stranded in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Port Willunga Port Willunga is a semi-rural suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is known as Wirruwarrungga or Ruwarunga by the traditional owners, the Kaurna people, and is of significance as being the site of a freshwater spring said to be created by the ...

Netley Netley, officially referred to as Netley Abbey, is a village on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It is situated to the south-east of the city of Southampton, and flanked on one side by the ruins of Netley Abbey and on the other by the Ro ...

and

West Beach West Beach may refer to: ;Australia * West Beach, South Australia *West Beach, Western Australia ;United States *West Beach (Santa Barbara), California *West Beach, Beverly, Massachusetts ;South Africa *West Beach, Western Cape West or Occide ...

with the latter successfully returned live to deeper water. The body of this fish gives the appearance of the side view of a larger shark (an optical illusion underwater). This is most likely to ward off any would be predators. In contrast to its much larger relatives in the family Molidae, who are very slow-moving and mostly feed upon jellyfish, salps, and small fish and crustaceans, the slender sunfish is known to mainly feed upon squid, particularly of the family

Ommastrephidae Ommastrephidae is a family of squid containing three subfamilies, 11 genera, and over 20 species. They are widely distributed globally and are extensively fished for food. One species, ''Todarodes pacificus'', comprises around half of the world's ...

, which are known for being very fast-moving, displaying evidence that the slender sunfish itself is a faster-moving and agile predator of squid.

Gallery

Image:Sunfish_close_up.jpg, Close-up of the head of a slender sunfish Image:Sunfish_full.jpg, Slender sunfish in Napili Bay, Maui, Hawaii

References

Abu El-Regal and El-Moselhy. 2013. The first record of slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis from the Red Sea. Journal of Fish Biology. Journal of Fish Biology 83(5):1425-9 DOI: 10.1111/jfb.12226 slender sunfish Cosmopolitan fish slender sunfish Taxa named by Thomas Pennant {{Tetraodontiformes-stub