What is the biggest fish in the ocean?
There is no doubt that it is a whale shark, and the whale shark is not a whale, but a shark, a kind of cartilaginous fish.
Whale shark habits
Whale sharks can reach up to 20 meters in length and weigh up to 30 tons. Although the whale shark belongs to the shark, it is a big fish with a good temper in the ocean.
Whale sharks are not carnivores, they feed on plankton.
Whale sharks have flattened heads and small eyes. There are also star-like white spots on the blue-gray back, about 10 cm long, and these white spots are as unique as human fingerprints.
The whale shark also has two fins on the back and is bifurcated to increase speed while swimming.
Vegetarian whale sharks
Whale sharks are not predators chasing prey, whale sharks are filter-feeding fish, its mouth can reach 1.5 meters wide when open, a deep breath of seawater, will use gill rakers to leave food, in the sea water out.
When the whale shark swims, it opens its mouth and swims while eating, and it will not refuse to come to food with a diameter of more than 2 mm, and can eat plankton such as krill and sea squirts
The environment in which whale sharks live
The whale shark has a large body and naturally needs a lot of food, so it often lives in the sea of coral reefs with abundant food sources. Swim around the coral reef with your mouth open, and you can almost have a full meal.
The main food of whale sharks, phytoplankton, needs to photosynthesize where there is light on the surface of the seawater, so whale sharks will be active in the surface layer of the seawater 90% of the time, generally at a depth of about 10 meters, and occasionally diving to a depth of about 100 meters.
Adult whale sharks are very friendly to humans, and juvenile whale sharks are more afraid of people, and they will avoid people from a distance when they see them.