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We gladly offer a variety of interesting, even amaizing fish factors to make your buying experience pleasant, full of enjoyment. We appreciate your time and hope to see you with us more often and to bring more happy hours into your everyday life.
Fish are cold-blooded, aquatic animals that have scales, gills and fins. They were the first backboned animals to evolve and are today the most diverse of all vertebrate groups. The earliest known fish were the ostracoderms, a now-extinct group of jawless fish that appeared in the Cambrian Period, about 510 million years ago. Fish include animals such as sharks, skates, rays, chimera, paddlefish, herrings, lanternfish, sea dragons, cavefish, spoonfish, pipefish, seahorses, sturgeons, coelacanths and lungfish.
There are around 28,000 identified species of fish on the earth, there may still be over 15,000 fish species that have not yet been identified. There are more species of fish than all the species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined. 40% of all fish species inhabit fresh water, yet less than .01% of the earth's water is fresh water.
Some people like to keep pet fish, others prefer to go out and spend the day catching fish. Some people are really careful about what they eat, others just don�t care and stuff themselves with all kinds of junk foods. But there�s another type of people, those that gamble with their lives for a rush of adrenalin or for a taste they find irresistible.
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The oldest fish that scientists have identified date from 425 million years ago, even before the dinosaurs started to roam around. It was jawless underwater creatures, with armorlike plates covering the body.
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The shortest lived vertebrate fish is the pygmy goby (Eviota sigillata), small coral reef-dwelling fish, 1 to 2 cm long, which lives for at most 59 days.
The gastrotrich is actually a type of animal: marine or fresh water micro organisms, with a maximum size of just three millimeters. There are many different types, but all live incredibly short lives. Their lives are uneventful too, spent floating among the sediment in their watery home, occasionally attaching themselves to a surface for a while, before loosening themselves once more to drift on the currents, eating, and little else.
In spite of this laid back, relaxed attitude to existence, these little creatures typically have a lifespan of on average, only three days.
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The longest life span fish is Rougheye Rockfish, Sebastes Aleutianus, the 205 years old, found offshore in the North Pacific. The longest living commercial fish may be the Orange Roughy, with a maximum reported age of 149 years. Koi is one of the longest-live freshwater fish, is ornamental domesticated varieties of the common carp, have reportedly lived up to over 200 years. The oldest living koi was Hanako, it died at an age of 226 years in 1977.
Arctica islandica clam, also known as an ocean quahog, is the longest-lived animal species, a creature of the Icelandic Cyprine Arctica islandica, a mollusk, was found to have lived 405 years and possibly up to 410 years. Animals with some of the longest lives are the Marion�s tortoise (152 years), the fin whale (116 years) and the deep-sea clam (100 years).
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The largest fish in the world is the Great Whale Shark or Rhincodon typus which grows to more than 65' (15 metres) in length and 10 tons in weight, is larger than the average school bus! The Whale Shark with their tiny 3000 teeth are omnivores that feed by swimming with their wide mouths open, collecting plankton, small fish and anything what are around. After draining out the water out of their gills what is left is the dinner.
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The smallest fish in the world is Paedocypris Progenetica, in the family Cyprinidae (which also includes carps and minnows), is skinny and transparent, found in Indonesian island of Sumatra and in the Malaysian part of Borneo, that came to just 7.9 millimetres from nose to tail.
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The second smallest is a marine fish of the western Pacific called the Dwarf Pygmy Goby (Trimmatom nanus), found in the Philippine Islands, which comes in at 8 millimetres fully grown.
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The world's largest, heaviest, biggest, and loudest animal to have ever existed on Earth, now or even in the prehistoric past, is the blue whale. It weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown it is 100 feet long and weights 150 tons. This is as much as 23 Elephants, 230 Cows or 1800 men. The largest blue whale on record is a stunning 200 tons. The world's largest rodent is the Capybara, can weigh more than 100 pounds, hog lives in an Amazon waters and looks like a guinea pig.
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The world's largest sea turtle is Leatherback, it can grow over 3 meters (10 ft) and can weigh more than 2,000 pounds. Leatherback turtles are one of the deepest diving marine animals, they are diving to depths as great as 1,280 meters (4,199 ft) and they are also the fastest-moving reptiles with speed more than 35 kph (22 mph).
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The fastest fish are Sailfish and Wahoo can exceed speed 90 kph, Tuna, Marlin, Swordfish and Mackerel swim with speed 50 kph, while the average fish have maximum speed of 20 kph.
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There are about 40 known species of the flying fish, which have thin wings that allow species to jump and glide in a way that it seems like they are flying, but in fact they are not. Flying fish actually glide on wind currents above the surface of the water, sometimes up to 20 feet above the surface. They are capable of continuing their flights with consecutive glides spanning distances up to 1,312 feet (400 meters). Also the flying fish are attracted to light.
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The most poisonous fish in the world is the Stonefish, a master of camouflage, which lives off the coast of Australia on the sea bottom and around coral reefs, and hides among rocks. It has 13 spikes on its back, all filled with extremely potent, protein-based venomous toxin, that causes severe pain, paralysis, and tissue death during few hours. The stonefish is a very expensive sashimi called okoze in Japan.
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One of the deadliest sea-creatures on earth is the Box Jellyfish or Sea Wasp, often referred to as the Box of Death, are found in the waters around Australia.It has up to 60 tentacles up 5 meters long and have 5,000 million stinging cells. It�s enough for a full grown adult to come in contact with just 3 tentacles to risk death. They have translucent bodies and this why they are extremely hard to see. Box Jellyfish are very fragile organisms, even a small fish could tear through it like butter, so it needs to kill aggressors and its food at first contact. People die from the shock the pain causes, there is no chance of surviving their poisonous sting, unless treated immediately.
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One of the world's deadliest sea-creatures are little beautiful looking Marbled Cone snails, a marine gastropod mollusks, about medium to large in size, are found around reefs, where there is plenty of fish and other snails to feed on. They are spread in warm salt water environment over Australia, Caribbean, Pacific, Red Sea, and along the coast of Florida. They are also known as �cigarette snail�, which means that a person stung by a cone snail has only time to smoke a cigarette before dying. Even a drop of marbled cone snail�s venom, which cause intense pain, tingling, numbness and swelling, is so powerful that it can kill more than 20 people. They can shoot out a toxic harpoon and reels in its prey in any direction, even backwards. The venom paralyzes its victim, which allows the snail to feast at its leisure. There is no antivenom.
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The second most poisonous vertebrate on earth (after the golden dart Frog) is a Puffer Fish. Fish contain a toxin, high levels of tetrodotoxin, that is deadly to humans. This tetrodotoxin is 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. Less than 0.1 g (0.004 oz) of this toxin is enough to kill an adult in as little as 20 minutes. There is enough toxin in one Puffer fish to kill 30 people and there�s no known antidote. The average time from consumption to death is 4 - 6 hours. The puffer fish can puff up to double its size by swallowing air or water, when threatened. Puffer�s powerful poisoning causes deadening of the tongue and lips, dizziness, vomiting, rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, and muscle paralyzes, eventually killing the victim through asphyxiation. If eaten it will firstly numb your lips and mouth and slowly kill nerve tissue until your muscles become paralyzed and breathing stops.
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The world�s most popular toxic delicacy, the Puffer fish contain a toxin, high levels of tetrodotoxin, that is deadly to humans, a powerful poison that paralyzes the muscles, eventually killing the victim through asphyxiation. These fish are considered a delicacy in Japan (as fugu) and Korea (as bok-uh) despite the fact one bad cut means certain death. The poison is present mostly in the liver, ovaries, eggs, blood, liver, intestines and skin and only well-trained and licensed chefs are allowed to cook this dangerous meal.
Fugu is as popular as ever. The most poisonous fugu, "Tora-fugu," is the most delicious and very expensive, it can cost over $100 at a fish market and more than $200 as a dish. There is an old expression "I want to eat fugu, but I don't want to die" in Japan should be combined with old Japanese tradition that was in medieval times, the chef had to share the client�s fate if he didn�t remove the poison correctly.
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One of the deadliest most venomous animals in the world is the Blue Ring Octopus, despite its small size, it carries enough poison in its body to kill over 26 people within minutes. The venom causes paralyzis and respiratory failure. There�s no known antidote and cure.
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A jellyfish is 95% water and have no heart, bones or brain and no real eyes. A jellyfish neither posess blood nor a nervous system. Nerve cells help them move and react to food or danger. Body of a jelly fish lack a skeletal structure or the outer shell. Mouth of a jellyfish is located on the underside of its bell and that is the only opening for its digestive system. They take food in through its mouth which is digested in a sack-like structure. Then they pass their waste out through their mouths.
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Jellyfish Lake, or Ongeim�l Tketau, located on Mecherchar Island, in the Palau Archipelago, east of the Philippines, is one of the most filled with an infinite number of jellyfish. Over 35 million years ago, jellyfish were trapped in this lake after a submerged reef rose from the sea, creating a landlocked saltwater lake. Tiny invisible holes which speckle the rocks that surround the lake let water from the sea seep into the lake. The jellyfish in that lake have adapted to the new conditions by losing their sting, they have eight primitive eyes and algae that live within their cells.
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The Starfish is one of the only animals who can turn it's stomach inside-out. They don't have a brain. The starfish have 5 to 8 microscopic eyes at the end of each arm-leg; this enables the starfish to view movement and differentiate between light and dark. Starfish can have 16, even 20 arms. In case a starfish loses its arm, it is capable of regenerating the same arm back. Most starfish have a spiky surface as a means of protection. The crown-of-thorns starfish is known for its thorny spines that are present all over the body.
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The seahorse is the only animal with its head at a right angle to its body. The seahorse is slowest fish on the planet. Of the 30 species of seahorses, the slowest (Dwarf Seahorse) zips along at 0.001 miles per hour. It would take about one hour to travel five feet. The seahorse is like a bunch of animals all rolled into one. It has a head like a horse, a long mouth like an anteater, eyes like a lizard that can move independently of each other, and a hard exoskeleton like an insect. All this is holding by a long, flexible tail. sea horses are best known for their roles as father, as one of the only species of animal where the male becomes pregnant and gives birth. Female sea horses insert their eggs into the male's pouch where they are fertilized and held until they hatch.
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The Spotted Climbing Perch, also called Climbing Gourami and Walking Fish, a freshwater fish that can leave its waterhole when it dried up and walk on land to another waterhole. The fish cannot derive enough oxygen from water because it has very small gills and generally lives in oxygen-poor water, this why it comes out of the water to breathe air for hours at a time. It is able to absorb oxygen from the air and will crawl overland using its strong pectoral fins.
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Lungfish, a slender-bodied and almost scaleless fish that breathes with a lung as well as by gills. The Lungfish can live out of water for as long as 4 years. The African and South American lungfishes use their lungs to breathe air out of water by using a lunglike organ called a swim bladder. They are one of a few bony fish that are able to control their fins as land animals control their limbs, they have joints that attach the fins to their body just as arms and legs are attached to a person�s body.
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Parrotfish at night secrete and then sleep inside a mucous cocoon. This cocoon protects it from parastes and snails, also helps it warn about the presence of predators and adds a horrible taste and smell to the parrot fish thus keeping the predators at a safe distance.
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The world's largest and the heaviest bony fish is ocean sunfish, Mola mola, or Common Mola. It can weigh up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). Sunfish can be as tall as they are long when their dorsal and ventral fins are extended. A female sunfish produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate, it may lay 300,000,000 eggs at a single spawning.
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Famous fish, which were existed for over 350 million years, they were already old when dinosaurs took over the world and still alive today
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The Coelacanth is the most famous of all living fossils that were supposed to be long extinct in the Cretaceous period, along with the dinosaurs and are unexpectedly found to be alive in South Africa in 1938 and in Indonesia in 1999. Coelacanths are large predators, up to 2 meters (6 foot 6inches) long; they feed on smaller fish, including small sharks, and are usually found in deep, dark waters.
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The Polypterus Senegalus, is an African fish, often called "dinosaur eels", due to their reptilian appearance and serrated dorsal fin, reminiscent of some dinosaurs' spiked backs. They are members of the bichir family and not really eels. They can survive out of the water for long periods of time as long as their skin remains wet, which enables them escape far away from fish tanks where they often were hold as exotic pets.
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Alligator Gar is the largest freshwater fish in North America, the oldest fish alive today, their origins can be traced back to the Cretaceous period. This thick scaled predator found in the southern US and northern and eastern Mexico, although it sometimes wanders into the sea. It can grow up to 4 meters (13ft) long and weigh up to 200 kg (440lbs). Gator gars are got their names because of their reptilian appearance and long jaws, armed with a double row of sharp teeth. They are voracious ambush predators and have been known to bite humans on occasion.
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This critically endangered animal is a survivor from the Cretaceous period, and can be found both in saltwater or in rivers and creeks, and has been found up to 100 kms inland. Up to 7 meters (23ft) in length, sawfish may look like sharks but are actually more closely related to rays. Their "saw" is both a weapon and a sensory organ, covered on electro-sensitive pores which allow it to sense prey despite its terrible eyesight. Usually very peaceful, the sawfish can become extremely dangerous if provoked.
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The Amazonian Arapaima, a close relative to the Arowana, is sometimes considered to be the largest freshwater fish in the world. It could grow up to 4.5 meters (14ft 8in) long, but today, enormous individuals like these are seldom found and most adult arapaimas average 2 meters (6ft 6in) long. These slow moving predators feed on smaller fish, crustaceans and whatever small animal they can fit in their mouth. An interesting fact that in order to survive, it needs to breath oxygen from the air, like a cetacean. Although the Arapaima seemingly appeared in the Miocene period, it belongs to a much older family, the Osteoglossidae, and therefore its origins can be traced back to the age of dinosaurs.
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The sturgeon, one more survivor from the age of dinosaurs (they were around in the early Jurassic period), is well known for being one of the main sources of caviar (which is made out of their roe or egg masses). The largest sturgeon species can grow up to 6 meters (19ft 7in) long, being as large as most great white sharks; they feed on small animals from the sea bottom and pose no danger to humans.
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Frilled Shark is deep sea predator, a relic from the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, is one of the most primitive sharks alive today. Seldom seen alive, the frilled shark can grow up to 2 meters (6ft 6in) (with females being larger than males) and they live in deep waters, where they feed mostly on squid.
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Arowana, is voracious predators, known as "dragon-fish" in China due to their appearance, is belonging to the ancient group of the Osteoglossids, already existed in the Jurassic period. Today, they are found in the Amazon, and in parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. Sometimes kept as exotic pets, arowanas are voracious predators that feed on any small animal they can catch. Arowanas are able to leap up to 2 meters (6ft 6in) into the air which helps them to feed on birds and bats which they catch in mid flight. They are thought to be harbingers of good luck.
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The lancetfish has a very obvious "prehistoric" appearance, with those fierce-looking, sharp teeth on its jaws and the sail on its back, reminiscent of that of some dinosaurs (although, in the lancetfish the sail is actually an enlarged dorsal fin). Even its scientific name has a dinosaurian sound to it (Alepisaurus ferox). Up to two meters (6ft 6in) in length, this predator is found in all the oceans except for polar regions; very voracious, it feeds on smaller fish and squid, and has known to feed on members of its own species sometimes.
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Hagfish have existed for over 300 million years, which means they were already old when dinosaurs took over the world. Found in relatively deep waters, these animals are sometimes called slime eels, but they are not really eels, and actually, they may not even be fish at all. They are very bizarre animals in all regards; they have a skull but lack a spine, and they have two brains. Almost blind, they feed at night on the carcasses of large animals (fish, cetaceans etc) which fall to the sea bottom. They owe their "slime eel" nickname to the fact that they produce a slimey substance to damage the gills of predatory fish; as a result, they have virtually no natural enemies.
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