Sticking fish is one of the most amazing creatures that inhabit the oceans. They spend almost their entire lives attached to various "hosts" with the help of the first dorsal fin, shifted to the top of the head and transformed during the evolutionary process into a special sucker shaped like an oval disk. These fish have been repeatedly found on cetaceans, rays, dolphins, turtles, and even on sea vessels. Fish-sticks manage to turn even the most bloodthirsty predators of the seas and oceans - sharks - into a convenient and comfortable "vehicle".
According to the biological classification, these unusual sea creatures belong to the family of bony perch-like order of the ray-finned class. They are widely distributed in the waters of subtropical and tropical seas. Sticking fish is not just an amazing creature, it is a vivid example of the evolutionary adaptability of biological organisms to various conditions of existence. The fact is thatnature did not provide her with a swim bladder, which allows you to adjust the depth of immersion. And the sticky fish found a completely original solution, using larger sea creatures as "vehicles".
Different types of these unusual inhabitants of the underwater world prefer well-defined "masters", not only greatly facilitating their long journeys, but in many cases playing a very important role in their lives. The most independent in its choice is the so-called ordinary sticky. Unlike his other "sticky" relatives, he has a certain penchant for independent living and often travels in splendid isolation. By the way, it is one of two species of representatives of this family (the second is the remora shark) living in Russian territorial waters.
Young sticky fish initially exist offline and begin to actively stick to floating objects only when they reach a size of more than four centimeters. At this stage of development, sticking fish chooses small fish as companions, for example, boxfish and pufferfish. For a long time it was believed that these representatives of the marine fauna feed exclusively on the remains of the food of their large "masters". But it is not so. Their diet is dominated by planktonic and small animals living in the water column, as well as exoparasites of the "host".
Unlike the common sticky, the shark remora is much more bonded to its bloodthirsty "vehicle".stronger bonds. She is a real sea shadow, always following her toothy "mistress" everywhere. Such sticky fish and sharks are a clear example of a biological tandem and the perfection of the planet's ecosystem. The basis of the remora menu is small invertebrate parasites - copepods that live on the shark body, which, no doubt, brings considerable benefits to the predator.
Apparently, remora cannot exist absolutely independently at all. Until now, this species has been found to stick only attached to the shark, and mainly in its gill cavity, where there is free access of water to the respiratory apparatus of the remora without any effort on its part. It is also interesting that the sticks of this type removed from the shark and placed in the aquarium felt extremely uncomfortable, one might even say badly. The remoras showed signs of "heavy breathing", taking over two hundred breaths per minute.
Also, a characteristic and rather unusual feature of many types of sticky is their ability to change their color. In general, the sizes of adult individuals of sticking fish fluctuate in the range from 30 cm to one meter. The boundaries of the depths of their habitat are approximately 20 - 50 m.
