Fish of the Mola genus of the Molidae (molas or ocean sunfishes) family of the Tetraodontiformes order of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Ocean sunfish. Photo by © Jay Sumner. kids.nationalgeographic.com)
Ocean sunfish (Mola mola) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It inhabits the depth of 30-480 meters, usually 30-70 meters. It often drifts on the surface, lying on its side. It is a pelagic species. The maximum recorded length is 333 cm. The maximum weight is 2,300 kilograms. It was added to the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest bony fish. It feeds on fish, mollusks, zooplankton, jellyfishes and crustaceans.
(Ocean sunfish. Photo by © Dieter Müßler. flickr.com/photos/dimuessler)
It is a permanent rare inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea.
Names of Ocean sunfish (Mola mola) in other languages as follows:
Peshku hënë (Albanian), Holdhal (Hungarian), Maanvis (Dutch), Φεγγαρόψαρο (Fengarópsaro) (Greek), Dag hashemesh (Hebrew), Pez luna (Spanish), Pesce luna (Italian), Mondfisch (German), Samogłów (Polish), Peixe-lua (Portuguese), Peştele Lună (Romanian), Обыкновенная луна-рыба (Obyknovennaja luna-ryba), Рыба-солнце (Ryba-solnce) (Russian), Bucanj veliki, Bucanj (Serbian, Croatian), Morski mesec (Slovenian), Güneş balığı (Turkish), Poisson lune (French), Měsíčník svítivý (Czech).