Fishes vary in quite a lot in size and this affects their speed. Speed is essential for predator fishes so that they are able to capture their prey successfully. This can be done by ambush or pursuit. However, the same can be said about a fish which is running for its life! It is amazing to know how fast the top 10 fastest fishes can move. The chemical reactions happening inside their lives alone can propel them to unbelievable velocities. Such is the acceleration of some fishes that their speeds are comparable to vehicles running on mechanical motors! It is extremely difficult to measure the speed of a moving fish but the list of the fastest fishes has finally been compiled, albeit with a lot of exhausting efforts. Fishes as fast as these often leap out of the water and launch themselves into the air! Here, we are going to discuss the top 10 fastest fishes in the world and see really how fast they can swim.
10. Tiger Shark
The Tiger Shark can travel as fast as fifty three kilometers an hour and catch its prey in no time at all. It is such a voracious eater that it feeds on just about anything it can get it hands on! These fish of prey also have a huge appetite to go with their killer instincts. Speed here becomes only an added advantage as probably it will feast on any available prey! Apart from being one of the fastest creatures in the ocean, this fish has a reputation of being a man hunter as well! Large Tiger Sharkscan grow to as much as twenty five feet in length and weigh as heavy as nine hundred kilos! These features certainly do not slow it down in any way! The estimated life of a Tiger Shark is in around sixteen years.
9. Tarpon
The Tarpon is a beautiful fish with a shiny silver skin getting it the name “Silver King”. A Tarpon can swim with a speed of fifty six kilometers an hour and hunt its prey easily at this speed. This speed is more than adequate to poise and hunt down any prey it likes! A Tarpon can grow up to eight feet in length and weight up to over a hundred and twenty nine kilos. The Tarpon can live as long as fifty years on average. The longest Tarpon recorded to have lived in captivity is sixty three years! Tarpons are mostly found in shallow Oceanic waters in many places around the world including the coast of Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
8. Swordfish
The Swordfish is extremely popular for its bill that resembles a sleek sword! The fish is a fierce predator in nature and coupled with the high speed with which it travels, it has become a feared fish to say the least! The swordfish travels as fast as a Bonefish, up to sixty four kilometers an hour. Owing to its elongated bill, a Swordfish is also sometimes called a Broadbill. The Swordfish uses its long bill to slash and kill its prey, making it fit for consumption! A Swordfish can grow up to almost fifteen feet in length and weighs much in excess of six hundred kilos. Also, a Swordfish is known to have a average lifespan of about nine year.
7. Bonefish
Almost all of the skin of a Bonefish is covered by uniform fins, making it quite unique and attractive. The color of a Bonefish is silver and it grows almost up to three and a half feet in length. The bonefish can move as fast as sixty four kilometers an hour, a very high speed that is comparable to the fastest fishes in the Oceanic wild. A bonefish is not as tasty a treat and so is not popular as other fishes. TheBonefish weighs around eight to ten kilos and prefers to inhabit warm waters. It is mostly spotted in shallow waters of the sea. A bonefish is sometimes also referred to as a phantom.
6. Blue Shark
The Blue shark has a deep blue skin towards the top but white towards the bottom. It grows up to twelve and a half feet in length on average and has an average weight in excess of two hundred kilograms. It can reach a length of about thirteen feet normally and the average life span for this fish is surprisingly thirty years! The Blue Shark can travel as fast as seventy kilometers per hour and is thus amongst the list of the fastest oceanic creatures living. Interestingly for the Blue Shark, the ritual of courting by the males is performed by biting the females, a painful tradition for the females! No wonder, the females have responded to this “uncivilized and painful” act by growing skin that is up to three times as thick as the males to lessen the effects of the obnoxious bites!
5. Yellow Fin Tuna
The Yellow Fin Tuna is an oval shaped beautiful fish with signature filets near its tail. The name owes its origin to the yellow fins of the Tuna which make it very beautiful to the sight. This Tuna can reach weights of up to one hundred and forty kilos and speeds of up to seventy kilometers per hour, making it one of the fastest fishes in the ocean. The Yellow Fin Tuna is found mostly in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Yellow Fin Tuna has an average lifetime of eight years and reaches lengths of near seven feet during its growth. This fish is migratory in nature and travels long distances as a routine of its nomadic life. The Yellow Fin Tuna is very popular as seafood and as a result of overfishing, it faces danger of extinction.
4. Southern Blue Fin Tuna
The Southern Blue Fin Tuna weighs up to four hundred kilos and travels as fast as seventy four kilometers per hour. This fish has a lifespan between twenty and forty years. It has a silvery white appearance with lines and dots on its skin. This fish is mostly found in the Indian Ocean and can grow to more than eight feet in length. Its diet contains a variety of species and is not restricted to any particular kind of food. This Southern Blue Fin Tuna is migratory in nature and prefers to inhabit waters that are temperate, i.e. with temperatures ranging from five to twenty degrees Celsius. Since Southern Blue Fin Tuna is caught extensively by humans, it is now at risk of extinction.
3. Wahoo
A Wahoo is a slim and sleek fish that looks and moves like a mini torpedo! This fish is probably the only in the Ocean to have such a white meat. Wahoo’s normally grow to five to eight feet in length and weigh up to eighty three kilos. A Wahoo can reach speeds of up to seventy eight kilometers per hour which is very close to the Striped Marlins. In Central America, a Wahoo is known as a Peto. AWahoo is a solitary fish, a loner in the Ocean and rarely socializes much. The white flesh of the Wahoo is a sought after commodities making this fish an expensive item in the fish market. Wahoo’s are predominantly found in the blue waters of the coast of Mexico.
2. Striped Marlin
Striped Marlins are beautiful fish with beautiful color schemes on their bodies. They are dark blue from the top but silver towards the lower part of the body. Also, the Marlins have vertical stripes on their sides, hence the name Striped Marlins. Striped Marlins are especially popular with so much known about them because they are part of a very popular game played by a lot of fish lovers around the world. Striped Marlins, weighing about two hundred kilos can swim at a speed of eighty kilometers per hour, making them the second fastest aquatic animal. The Striped Marlins are often mistaken for the sword fish with their pointed bills but they are much larger and way too bulky to be a swordfish.
1. Sailfish
The Sailfish is by far the fastest fish in the Ocean as it can swim at speeds up to a hundred and twelve kilometers per hour! Interestingly, this makes the Sailfish eligible to compete with the cheetahs on land, the fastest mammal to walk the earth! The Sailfish is mostly found in mild temperate of the Indian Ocean as well as the Pacific and it mostly feeds near the surface or at shallow depths in the Ocean. This particular fish has an average growth of four to five feet but it can grow up to ten feet in length! A Sailfish normally weighs up to a hundred kilos which is a considerable amount of weight but their long bodies are in perfect proportions to their high amount of weight, striking a balance in their physique. The Sailfish is believed to have a lifespan of ten years.