The Remora is a pelagic marine fish that is usually found in the warmer parts of most oceans clinging on to large sharks, sea turtles, bony fishes and other marine mammals (Marshall 1965). Physical Description Remora remora is a short, thick-set sucking fish (Marshall 1965).The Remora has 28-37 long slender gillrakers, 21-27 dorsal fin rays, 20-24 anal fin rays, and 25-32 pectoral fin ray (Unesco 1989). The dorsal and anal fins lack spines (Nelson 1984). The Remora has no swim bladder and uses a sucking disc on the top of its head to obtain rides from other animals such as large sharks, and sea turtles. The sucking disk, developed from a transformed spinous dorsal fin, contains 16-20 transverse movable lamina which create a partial vacuum permitting the Remora to obtain rides on larger animals (Nelson 1984). The head is rather long and flattened, 26-29% of the standard length, with the disc being 34-42% of the standard length. The lower jaw projects past the upper jaw and the teeth, located in jaws and vomer in a villiform patch, are sharply pointed and recurved slightly inward. The scales are small and cycloid (Unesco 1989, Nelson 1984), and the color, nearly uniform above and below, is blackish or brownish (Marshall 1965). The Remora grows to about 18 inches (Marshall 1965).
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 02:47:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015