All About Fish
Fish are animals that live in water such as streams, rivers, ponds, lakes and oceans. They have backbones, fins and gills. Animals that have backbones are called vertebrates. Fish are vertebrates.
Most fish lay eggs but some fish, such as sharks, give birth to live babies.
Fish can eat many different things. Some eat algae, insects or molluscs. Some fish are predators, which means they eat other fish or animals. There are fish that eat turtles and even water birds.
Fish breathe oxygen just like us, but the oxygen they breathe doesn’t come from the air, it comes from the water. Fish use their gills (the slits near their face) to take out the oxygen from the water.
Most fish are covered in scales while others are smooth and scaleless like sharks. Did you know sharks are fish but dolphins are mammals? Fish don’t drink milk but mammals do. Dolphins are mammals because their babies drink milk.
Fun facts
- Some fish are flat! They lie on the ocean floor like pancakes with both their eyes squished on one side of their body. How cool is that!
- The smallest fish in the world is less than 1cm long, it’s called the dwarf goby.
- The heaviest fish is the ocean sunfish which can weigh as much as a rhinoceros.
- The longest fish is the whale shark which can grow over 50 feet (16m) long.
- The fastest fish is a sailfish which can swim as fast as 68 miles per hour. That’s almost as fast as a cheetah, the fastest animal on land!
