Swordfish. Description

The swordfish today is considered to be the only representative of the family of Mecherians. Its name was given to the animal due to the peculiar form of the upper jaw. Usually adult swordfish, a photo of which can be easily found on the Internet, can reach a length of more than four meters, and its weight fluctuates around half a ton. Inhabit animals in tropical and subtropical waters, sometimes they can be found in the Black and Azov Sea. Individuals appear in temperate warm waters during the period of fodder migration. So, at this time, fish can be found in the waters of Iceland, near Newfoundland. Animals also appear in the North Sea.

The swordfish has an elongated upper jaw, powerful lateral carinae on the tail. The body of the animal is devoid of scales. All this in a complex allows it to develop a sufficiently high speed - an hour to one hundred and thirty kilometers. The pelvic fins have no swordfish, and its tail resembles a crescent moon in its shape. The adult representatives have almost no teeth, but the young have jaw teeth. As gill petals, they have mesh plates.

The upper jaw, shaped like a spear, deserves special attention. This part is about a third of the total length of the body. With the help of its upper jaw, the swordfish strikes its prey: it cuts it in half. This is evidenced by the bodies of squid and fish discovered in her stomach.

The swordfish looks like a swordfish. Despite the almost identical size and external data, they belong to different families. Similarity can be seen in the photo. The swordfish lives in waters with a fairly wide temperature range. During fattening, family members are not too demanding for warm waters, they often occur in water areas with a temperature of about twelve degrees. During the spawning period, the situation changes radically. Fish sword spawns exclusively in tropical waters, the temperature of which is more than twenty-three degrees.

Animals are quite fertile. A small female can lay a lot of eggs - more than fifteen million. Of relatively large larvae, differing relatively short jaw, and when the larva reaches a length of eight millimeters, it becomes a spear. In comparison with adults, which do not have either teeth or scales, the fry have rough scales with small spines, as well as jaw teeth. Puberty is observed around the fifth or sixth year of life.

The nutrition of the larvae depends on their age. At the very beginning of development they manage zooplankton. When their length reaches a centimeter, they turn to small fish. During the first year of life, fish species reach about fifty centimeters. By the third year their length often becomes more than a meter. Adult individuals eat small fish that inhabit near-surface waters. The diet includes large predators, such as, for example, tuna. In fairly rare cases, a swordfish can attack even a shark.