General Information

COMMON NAMES: Sunfish, Ocean Sunfish, Headfish, King-of-the-Mackerels, Round-tailed Sunfish; German Klumpfisch / Mondfish; French Môle Commun TRADITIONAL NAMES: Witingāelo (PK) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Circumglobal except polar seas [S.Pacific records Solomons, New Caledonia, NZ & Cooks] COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; S.Group - rare; N.Group - rare; Marine, pelagic KEY FEATURES: To 3m TL, and 1,500kg. Oval body with large Dorsal and Anal Fins, and short scalloped-edged tail. Small rounded Pectorals; pelvics absent. Silvery grey to grey-brown uppers, pale below. Skin thick and leathery with areas of tubercles.

Cook Islands Distribution

View Distribution Map

Southern Group: Present    Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
+	+	-	+	P

Northern Group: Present
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
++			P

Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758)
SYNONYMS: Diodon mola; Orthagoriscus mola; Tetraodon mola [O]

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); PISCES; OSTEICHTHYES; Tetraodontiformes; Tetraodontoidei; Tetraodontoidea; MOLIDAE

GENERAL NOTE: Lives in the surface waters, down to 350m. Typically a lazy swimmer, mainly drifting with the current. Sometimes they bask lying on their sides, but also capable of bursts of speed such that they can jump completely clear of the water. Feed mainly on jellyfish, but will eat any plankton it catches. Flesh is tough but not poisonous. It is the most fertile of ocean fish, producing about 300 million eggs!

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: fieldsighting, Greg Wilson, 7/1994, off Airport, pers.comm.GW.; fieldsighting, Chip Boyle, 1995, c.130ft on dropoff north of Airport Carpark, pers.comm.CB. Pukapuka: fieldspecimen+photo, 3/2004, K.Salisbury with ID as Mola mola.

References:
p.656 Burgess et al. (1988) Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes (TFH)

Data Update History (information):
zTXmx, zB02, zM02, zupM05a, zD02

Web Resources

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• FishBase