What is a fish

First of all, fishes are amazing animals, they can vary in size and shape, have different coloring, scales and behavior. A lot of words were told about them, different people treat fishes in different ways: some buy them and make aquariums, some eat them, some capture them and go fishing, some create special aqua parks in order to prevent their dying.

When I was asked to give the definition of a word “fish”, I even didn’t know what to answer and then after a couple of minutes, I gave such an interpretation. A fish is an animal with scales and fins, they live in water, have no lungs, they breathe with a help gills. But such a definition is not correct from the scientific point of view – because, for example, eels – have no fins. There are a lot of species of fish and a lot of classes of fishes. I like exotic fishes very much. They are very beautiful and even can smile.

“Fish” theme is a commonly-used theme. Let’s remember mermaids – girls half-fishes or the “great fish”, that swallowed up Prophet Jonah. The were Saint people that were able to take fish-like appearance: Ika-Roa, Matsya. There is an astrological sign – called Pisces and in the sky we can see a constellation with this title. A lot of cartoons made fishes their main heroes: Finding Nemo, The Mermaid, Shark Tale.
Have you ever heard something about deep sea fishes? They are very interesting creatures, while looking at them, you can think that they are not from this planet. Actually, it is truth (to some extent). Such fishes swim below the photic zone of the ocean, sometimes there is no natural illumination there, so in order to see the prey and to be able to survive in these severe conditions, these fishes got very strange body and extremely large eyes. Unfortunately, scientist can’t study them thoroughly because these fishes are not able of living in unnatural conditions.

And now tell me, please, how do fishes move? With a help of fins! Yeah? But there are some fishes, they are called “walking fishes” , which can travel over sea floor or land for rather long periods of time. The best representative in this category is a mud-skipper. Such fishes have a special respiratory system that allows them to live without water for a couple of days! Also, there are some fishes, which are still called walking, but their walking is limited to sea floor travelling.

Don’t forget, that Marine is not only a popular name but a first word of Marine Biology, a science that deals with fishes, their preservation. As you know, fishes and water is two inseparable parts – and the total amount of water on the Earth is nearly 1.4 billion km3 and only 3 percent is occupied with fresh (I mean not salt) water. And more than 70 percent of the Planet Earth is in water.

If you don’t have your own aquarium, visit any big aquarium at your city – you won’t be disappointed!