It often drifts at the surface while lying on its side, or swims upright and so close to the surface that the dorsal fin projects above the water. Sometimes reaches depths of up to 300 m (Ref. 9317). Feeds on animal plankton, eel larvae, small deep-sea fishes; also on jellyfish, crustaceans, molluscs, and brittlestars (Ref. 4925). In Guiness Book of Records it was recorded as the heaviest bony fish and as the one with the most eggs (Ref. 6472). Also occasionally caught with encircling nets (Ref. 9119) and harpoon (Ref. 9988). Mola is the latin word for millstone.

to 332 cm TL (male/unsexed); max. weight: 2,000 kg.

333 cm TL (male/unsexed; (Ref. 26340)); max. published weight: 2,300.0 kg (Ref. 47360)

Maximum size: 3330 mm TL

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 15 - 18; Analspines: 0; Analsoft rays: 14 - 17

Ocean sunfish have a large body that is compressed and ovular. They are the largest bony fish, measuring up to 3.1 m in length, 4.26 m in height, and weighing up to 2235 kg (Hutchins, 2004; Humann and Deloach, 2002; Houghton et al., 2006). They are scale-less, and have a thick, rubbery skin and irregular patches of tubercles over their body (Hutchins, 2004; Wheeler, 1969; Smith, 1965). Notably, adult ocean sunfish do not have a caudal fin or caudal peduncle. They instead have a clavus, which is a truncated tail, used more like a rudder than for propulsion.

Length max (cm): 332.0 (S)

The sunfish is distributed throughout the world in warm and temperate seas. In the British Isles they are mostly encountered late in the summer around August and September.

Tropical and temperate seas; northward to northern Norway in the eastern Atlantic, to the Newfoundland banks, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the coast of Nova Scotia in the western Atlantic.

Circumglobal in tropical through temperate seas (including western Baltic Sea, North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Mascarenes, Red Sea, Hawaiian Islands).