Sunfish or mola are known because of their unusual shape: an upright flattened disk, tapered top and bottom fins between body and tail, and small black eyes halfway between its small pectoral fins and round mouth. Mola in Latin means “millstone” and describes the ocean sunfish’s somewhat circular shape. They are called also sunfish because of their habit of floating on its side, at the sea surface, warming itself in the sun. In Italy, Spain, Portugal and other countries, however, sunfish are known as “Moonfish”, as mola looks like a moon more than the sun.

Molas lack a swim bladder so they swim constantly, but they can dive to depths deeper than 600 m to forage for food. Ocean Sunfish eat mainly jellies, but also eat salps, squid, crustaceans, small fish, fish larvae and eel grass. Sunfish can release as many as 300 million eggs at a time and spawn several times throughout their lifetimes. Newly hatched ocean sunfish weigh less than a gram and is part of plankton, and this species is noted for one of the most impressive transformations in size in the animal kingdom. Ocean Sunfish can grow to 60 million times their birth size a record for vertebrates!