natural life wonders

Baby mola mola, so shiny and cute. Via

karlayst: Mola by sailroue59  - A baby Ocean Sunfish, Mola mola.

We still don’t fully understand the reproductive practices of Mola mola but suggested spawning sites include North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian Oceans (narrows it down, doesn’t it?!). 

Females can produce a whopping 300 million eggs at a time, more than any other known vertebrate.The eggs are externally fertilized in the water column. Newly hatched sunfish larvae are only 2.5 mm (0.098 in) long. They grow to become fry, and those which survive grow many millions of times their original size before reaching adult proportions.

Adults, with their enormous size and tough skin have few predators (that include sea lions, orcas and some sharks), but the babies are prone to predation from bluefin tuna and mahi mahi. 

Sunfish fry, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish, resemble miniature pufferfish, their close relatives.Young sunfish school for protection, but this behaviour is abandoned as they grow.