Diversity of Fish

Diversity of fish
Introduction
Fish are very diverse animals and can be categorised in many ways. This article is an
overview of some of ways in which fish are categorised. Although most fish species have
probably been discovered and described, about 250 new ones are still discovered every year.
According to FishBase, 33,100 species of fish had been described by April 2015.[5] That is
more than the combined total of all
other vertebrate species: mammals, amphibians,reptiles and birds.
Fish species diversity is roughly divided equally between marine (oceanic)
and freshwater ecosystems. Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific constitute the centre of diversity
for marine fishes, whereas continental freshwater fishes are most diverse in large river
basins of tropical rainforests, especially the Amazon, Congo, and Mekongbasins. More than
5,600 fish species inhabit Neotropical freshwaters alone, such that Neotropical
fishesrepresent about 10% of all vertebrate species on the Earth. Exceptionally rich sites in
the Amazon basin, such as Canto State Park, can contain more freshwater fish species than
occur in all of Europe.[6]
Aims
Introduction to the Diversity of Fishes

With well over 24,000 extant species currently known, the world's fishes comprise by far the largest and most
diverse of all vertebrate groups. Occupying almost every conceivable aquatic habitat from high elevation
mountain springs more than 5,000 meters above, to the ocean abyss some 7,000 meters below the surface of
the sea, ichthyological variety in lifestyle, anatomy, physiology and behavior is unsurpassed among vertebrates.
Fishes live in water, the original medium for life on Earth. Permanent gills, median fins supported by rays of
cartilage or bone, and often paired fins, are all characteristics of fishes that allow them to live successfully in
water. No fishes have limbs with digits. The diversity of forms among fishes provide evolutionary biologists with
some of the best examples of natural selection, adaptation, divergence, speciation, and historical development
of fauna on scales from regional to continental.
Far from being the "dead-end" that we land-dwelling creatures tend to assume, fishes are extraordinarily
diverse and their watery habitats provide a vast array of places in which to live and thrive.
Fish species range in size from the smallest known living vertebrate, Trimmatom nanus, a goby, which is
mature at a mere 8 millimeters, to the giant whale shark, Rhincodon typus, which can grow as large as 12
meters. There are species of fish living at 5,200 meters above sea level in Tibetan hot springs and fishes that
live in a depth of eight thousand meters below the ocean surface this is an incredible span, over 13
kilometers of vertical distance. No other vertebrate group occupies such a wide band of habitable space.
Marine habitats include the deep sea, the mid-oceans, shrimp burrows, coral heads and sponges, and even
the insides of sea cucumbers. Freshwater habitats include streams, rivers, lakes, even 500-meter-deep
underground caves, and seasonal pools. African and South American lungfishes can tolerate "suspended
animation" by living in dry mud for up to four years.
Certain species of fish can cope with depleted oxygen levels. Air breathing has evolved numerous times in the
evolutionary history of fishes. This often involves different parts of the body: i.e. gills, air bladders, lungs, skin,
the intestines, or the rectum. There are fish species which live in freshwater so pure it resembles distilled, while
others live in extremely salty conditions, such as three little North American cyprinodontids: Aphanius dispar,
Adinia xenica, and Cyprinodon variegatus, which can tolerate water that ranges from fresh to entirely salty.
Other species live in water so cold -2C that they need a form of "antifreeze" in their blood, while others
live in water that is incredibly hot, up to 44C in so-called "hot soda" lakes in Africa.
Equally amazing is the breadth of the feeding range within fishes. Fish species eat plankton, plants, snails,
coral, wood, and other fishes, and some are so specialized that they eat parts of other fishes, like fish scales,
eyes, and eggs. There are even fishes that subsist on hippopotamus droppings! Some fishes are blood-eating
parasites which pierce the skin of living fishes, or else enter another fish's gill cavity to feed. Still, other species
take parasitism to the extreme, such as certain male ceratoid anglerfish, which permanently attach to their
female counterparts to obtain nutrients directly from their
blood.
Some species of fishes grow continuously throughout their
lifespaneven changing ecology as they growfor example
salmon. There are some fish species that live for less than a
year, while others may live for 150 years. When we consider
fish reproductive ecology we see tremendous variations:
some species breed once and then die, a behavior called
"semelparity"others spawn repeatedly in one season,
these are known as "repeat spawners. Some spawn over
repeated seasonsthis is called "iteroparity."
Variation in egg size and the number of eggs produced per
female is immense. The amount of investment by parents
Some species of cichlids are mouth-brooders, holding their
outside of gamete production varies from none at all to
eggs, and later their young, in their mouths for protection.
extensive. This may include internal fertilization, nestAMNH
building, mouth-brooding, and brood-feeding. Some fish
species begin life as one gender, then change sex, while others are hermaphrodites.
Fish migrations can cover enormous distances. Some Yukon River species of salmon migrate distances of
3,000 kilometers upstream while other fish species live and die within one meter of the place in which they
were hatched or born. Such extraordinary diversity makes fishes a model group to study.
Ichthyologists study fishes and only fishes. The total number of living fish species identified to date is about
25,000this accounts for roughly half of the living species diversity of all vertebrates: The remaining 50
percentthe tetrapodsincludes all amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals put together. The vast majority
of fish species belong to one group: the Actinopterygii, or ray-finned fishes. There are at least 23,700 living
Actinopterygian species that have been described by scientists. Over 200 new fish species are discovered
annuallyichthyologists are very busy people! The species richness of the Actinopterygii strongly contrasts
with the species poverty of the other major fish groups to date.
The large-scale ecological distribution of fishes is strongly bimodal: 58 percent of fish species are marine, 41
percent, or approximately 10,000 species, live principally in freshwater. Roughly 1 percent, or 160 fish species,
regularly migrate between salt-water and freshwater. The diversity of freshwater fishes causes some pause:
Only about 0.01 percent of Earth's water supplya tiny amountis freshwater. Scientists calculate that
freshwaters hold a far greater density of fish species than the oceansgreater by 7,500 times! However, it
must be noted, that most marine species actually live in a relatively small volume of seawater in the productive
photic zone, that is the light-penetrating zone, especially around coral reefs.
Our planets waters are hot spots of recent and future discoveries. Ongoing studies often suggest and reveal
unsuspected relationships among and between fishes, as well as entirely new species. These are times of
exciting discovery and advancement of scientific knowledge in ichthyology. New discoveries beckon us to seek
the many remaining unknowns in the diversity of life on our planet. These are also times of rapid and
destructive change in aquatic habitats around the globesuch threats alert us to the increasing potential for
permanent loss and the dangers of remaining ignorant about so much of our planets rich aquatic biota.
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Introduction to the Diversity of Fishes

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