11/12/22, 9:05 PM fish | Definition, Species, Classification, & Facts | Britannica

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• Last Updated: Nov 5, 2022
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Key People:
David Starr Jordan •
Louis Agassiz •
Eugenie Clark •
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque •
Étienne
de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède

Related Topics:
chondrichthyan •
eel •
lungfish •
shark •
agnathan

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Summary

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fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata)

found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive
jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the
abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one
species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.

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lamprey

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The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It

describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group. As members of the phylum
Chordata, fish share certain features with other vertebrates. These features are gill slits
at some point in the life cycle, a notochord, or skeletal supporting rod, a dorsal hollow
nerve cord, and a tail. Living fishes represent some five classes, which are as distinct
from one another as are the four classes of familiar air-breathing animals—amphibians,
reptiles, birds, and mammals. For example, the jawless fishes (Agnatha) have gills in
pouches and lack limb girdles. Extant agnathans are the lampreys and the hagfishes. As
the name implies, the skeletons of fishes of the class Chondrichthyes (from chondr,
“cartilage,” and ichthyes, “fish”) are made entirely of cartilage. Modern fish of this class
lack a swim bladder, and their scales and teeth are made up of the same placoid
material. Sharks, skates, and rays are examples of cartilaginous fishes. The bony fishes
are by far the largest class. Examples range from the tiny seahorse to the 450-kg (1,000-
pound) blue marlin, from the flattened soles and flounders to the boxy puffers and
ocean sunfishes. Unlike the scales of the cartilaginous fishes, those of bony fishes, when
present, grow throughout life and are made up of thin overlapping plates of bone. Bony
fishes also have an operculum that covers the gill slits.

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commercial fishing

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The study of fishes, the science of ichthyology, is of broad importance. Fishes are of
interest to humans for many reasons, the most important being their relationship with
and dependence on the environment. A more obvious reason for interest in fishes is
their role as a moderate but important part of the world’s food supply. This resource,
once thought unlimited, is now realized to be finite and in delicate balance with the
biological, chemical, and physical factors of the aquatic environment. Overfishing,
pollution, and alteration of the environment are the chief enemies of proper fisheries
management, both in fresh waters and in the ocean. (For a detailed discussion of the
technology and economics of fisheries, see commercial fishing.) Another practical
reason for studying fishes is their use in disease control. As predators on mosquito
larvae, they help curb malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

Fishes are valuable laboratory animals in many aspects of medical and biological
research. For example, the readiness of many fishes to acclimate to captivity has
allowed biologists to study behaviour, physiology, and even ecology under relatively
natural conditions. Fishes have been especially important in the study of animal
behaviour, where research on fishes has provided a broad base for the understanding of
the more flexible behaviour of the higher vertebrates. The zebra fish is used as a model
in studies of gene expression.

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There are aesthetic and recreational reasons for an interest in fishes. Millions of people
keep live fishes in home aquariums for the simple pleasure of observing the beauty and
behaviour of animals otherwise unfamiliar to them. Aquarium fishes provide a personal
challenge to many aquarists, allowing them to test their ability to keep a small section of
the natural environment in their homes. Sportfishing is another way of enjoying the
natural environment, also indulged in by millions of people every year. Interest in
aquarium fishes and sportfishing supports multimillion-dollar industries throughout
the world.

General features
Structural diversity
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Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they
have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a
sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the
land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular
conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and
breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that
conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and
greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-
dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately
extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the
positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have
appeared in several evolutionary lines.

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Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective
environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a
wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of
pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems
to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes
are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the
enhancement of behavioral signals.

Fishes range in adult length from less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 metres
(60 feet) and in weight from about 1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands
of kilograms. Some live in shallow thermal springs at temperatures slightly above 42 °C
(100 °F), others in cold Arctic seas a few degrees below 0 °C (32 °F) or in cold deep
waters more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) beneath the ocean surface. The structural
and, especially, the physiological adaptations for life at such extremes are relatively
poorly known and provide the scientifically curious with great incentive for study.

Distribution and abundance

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Almost all natural bodies of water bear fish life, the exceptions being very hot thermal
ponds and extremely salt-alkaline lakes, such as the Dead Sea in Asia and the Great Salt
Lake in North America. The present distribution of fishes is a result of the geological
history and development of Earth as well as the ability of fishes to undergo evolutionary
change and to adapt to the available habitats. Fishes may be seen to be distributed
according to habitat and according to geographical area. Major habitat differences are
marine and freshwater. For the most part, the fishes in a marine habitat differ from
those in a freshwater habitat, even in adjacent areas, but some, such as the salmon,
migrate from one to the other. The freshwater habitats may be seen to be of many
kinds. Fishes found in mountain torrents, Arctic lakes, tropical lakes, temperate
streams, and tropical rivers will all differ from each other, both in obvious gross
structure and in physiological attributes. Even in closely adjacent habitats where, for
example, a tropical mountain torrent enters a lowland stream, the fish fauna will differ.
The marine habitats can be divided into deep ocean floors (benthic), mid-water oceanic
(bathypelagic), surface oceanic (pelagic), rocky coast, sandy coast, muddy shores, bays,
estuaries, and others. Also, for example, rocky coastal shores in tropical and temperate
regions will have different fish faunas, even when such habitats occur along the same
coastline.

Although much is known about the present geographical distribution of fishes, far less
is known about how that distribution came about. Many parts of the fish fauna of the
fresh waters of North America and Eurasia are related and undoubtedly have a common
origin. The faunas of Africa and South America are related, extremely old, and probably
an expression of the drifting apart of the two continents. The fauna of southern Asia is
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related to that of Central Asia, and some of it appears to have entered Africa. The

extremely large shore-fish faunas of the Indian and tropical Pacific oceans comprise a
related complex, but the tropical shore fauna of the Atlantic, although containing Indo-
Pacific components, is relatively limited and probably younger. The Arctic and Antarctic
marine faunas are quite different from each other. The shore fauna of the North Pacific
is quite distinct, and that of the North Atlantic more limited and probably younger.
Pelagic oceanic fishes, especially those in deep waters, are similar the world over,
showing little geographical isolation in terms of family groups. The deep oceanic habitat
is very much the same throughout the world, but species differences do exist, showing
geographical areas determined by oceanic currents and water masses.

Natural history
Life history

All aspects of the life of a fish are closely correlated with adaptation to the total
environment, physical, chemical, and biological. In studies, all the interdependent
aspects of fish, such as behaviour, locomotion, reproduction, and physical and
physiological characteristics, must be taken into account.

Correlated with their adaptation to an extremely wide variety of habitats is the

extremely wide variety of life cycles that fishes display. The great majority hatch from
relatively small eggs a few days to several weeks or more after the eggs are scattered in
the water. Newly hatched young are still partially undeveloped and are called larvae
until body structures such as fins, skeleton, and some organs are fully formed. Larval
life is often very short, usually less than a few weeks, but it can be very long, some
lampreys continuing as larvae for at least five years. Young and larval fishes, before
reaching sexual maturity, must grow considerably, and their small size and other
factors often dictate that they live in a habitat different than that of the adults. For
example, most tropical marine shore fishes have pelagic larvae. Larval food also is
different, and larval fishes often live in shallow waters, where they may be less exposed
to predators.

After a fish reaches adult size, the length of its life is subject to many factors, such as
innate rates of aging, predation pressure, and the nature of the local climate. The
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longevity of a species in the protected environment of an aquarium may have nothing to

do with how long members of that species live in the wild. Many small fishes live only
one to three years at the most. In some species, however, individuals may live as long as
10 or 20 or even 100 years.

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