Sawfish is one from many interesting species of fish that still exist today. Maybe the first impression after you saw this fish is that it is wild, dangerous, and live in the deep ocean but in fact it is not.
If you do not know more about this species of fish, you might classifying it as a shark but in fact it is not a shark even though it looks like one.
And even though this species of fish is edible but most people do not eat sawfish maybe because of it looks but many people do hunt the sawfish for its snout. Because so many of you still do not know about this species of fish today I would like to share you with about some of the sawfish facts that might help you to know more.
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1. Its unique snout
Unlike another marine animal, sawfish’s snout has something unique suround it that make it looks like a saw. Its snout is used to help the sawfish to catch its prey.
2. Fake teeth
Even though the sawfish’s snout looks so scary but in facts the teeth surround the snout is not real. It is a modification from its scale that form a shape looks like a teeth.
3. Related to shark and rays
If you take a look at sawfish in a second you might see that it looks like a rays. In fact, sawfish, shark, and rays are actually related to one another because of its skeleton that has the same materials which is made up from cartilage.
See also: Types of Ocean Rays – Types of Stingrays In the Great Barrier Reef
4. Found in shallow water
Even though they look scary and most scary fish live in the deep ocean but you can find the existence of sawfish in the shallow area. You actually can find them in the muddy and or sandy bottom area.
5. Its growth
Another sawfish facts that you need to know is that it can grow and reach its body length up to 24 feet or equal to 7.31 m. But mostly, sawfish is 20 feet long. And about its weight, sawfish’s weight can reach the number of 300 kg and even more than that.
6. Its food
About its food, sawfish eat fish and crustaceans and they are using its snout to cut off its prey body into pieces before it eats their prey. They will move their snout back and forth and by then their prey’s body will be cut into pieces. Their mouth is in the underpart their head.
See also: Herbivores in The Pacific Ocean – Herbivores in the Coral Reef
7. Ovoviviparous
Ovoviviparous means that during the pregnancy, sawfish is actually having an egg inside of its body. But when it gives a birth, the egg doesn’t come out and what is come out is the young sawfish.
8. Sawfish population
The sad fact is that knowing that the sawfish population is actually decreasing. This is because there are a lot of treat toward sawfish such as illegal hunting for its snout.
See also: Overfishing in the Ocean
9. Its habitat
Sawfish has a great ability to adapt toward the salinity. It can be found in mostly everywhere including fresh water and even brackish water. This species of fish will prefer a shallow area which have the depth less than 10m.
See also: Major Types of Ocean Habitats
10. Reproduction system
Sawfish facts number 10 is that unlike the other species of fish that can give birth for couples of times in a year, sawfish will only give birth once or twice in a year. And the number of young sawfish that they are born is about eight young sawfish.
11. Sawfish’s image to human
About the sawfish’s image to human, most people will see that this fish usually attack human simply because it seems wild. But, in fact sawfish is harmless to human and even though it is attacking human it is just because they feel threatened.
12. Mythology
In the past, some people believed that sawfish has a spirit that can protect them and their loved one. Because of this, so many people in some areas that time using sawfish snout as an amulet.
13. Growth inside an aquarium
In America and Europe there are some public aquarium that keep sawfish inside a huge aquarium. What is interesting is that it is known that the growth of sawfish inside an aquarium is faster compare to the growth of sawfish in wild.
See also: Conservation of Oceans – Conservation of Coral Reef
14. It has another name
Sawfish has another name in another places which maybe more familiar to people. They are the smalltooth sawfish, the largetooth sawfish, the green sawfish , the dwarf sawfish, and the narrowtooth sawfish. It is also known as carpenter sharks, combshark, common sawfish, and Florida sawfish.
15. Species
Another sawfish facts is that there are only exist five species of sawfish that is still alive up to now. The two species from five species can be found in Florida.
16. Its body and head are flat
Just like rays, sawfish has a flat head and body. Maybe it is also affected by its evolution since it spends most of its time in the sea floor.
17. Sawfish’s eyes are undeveloped
Even though sawfish has eyes but its eyes are undevelop so it uses its rostrum as its main sensory device. Therefore, most of them can not see properly.
18. Its internal partition shaped like a corkscrew
In its small intestines there is a internal partition that shaped like a corkscrew. It is called as a spiral valve which help the intestines to absorb more food and nutrition because of its shape.
19. Nocturnal
Sawfish is classified as a nocturnal animal where it has its most activity done in night and sleep during the day. Not many animals have this ability.
20. Scientist want to know if you see one
One important sawfish facts is that in some country or in Florida for example, scientist would like to know if you saw sawfish. This is because the number of this species of fish is keep declining and they are going to protect it.
21. Predators
Even though sawfish looks so scary but this does not mean that their look make them to be in the top of food chain. There are some predators that feeds on sawfish such as shark and crocodile.
See also: Deep Ocean Ecosystems
22. Look alike with the saw shark
Even though both animals look alike to one another but actually sawfish and saw shark is two different animals. Just like any other shark, saw shark will have gill in its body side while the sawfish will have the gill in the underside of its body.
23. Smalltooth is the largest
Comparing smalltooth to another species of sawfish, this species of sawfish has the largest body. It is kind of cute knowing that its name is small but in fact it has the largest body.
24. It can sense electricity
Just like shark, sawfish can actually sense the electricity from another animals. Its ability is also know as a sixth sense because through this, sawfish can actually find their prey by detecting their electric field.
25. The very first endangered fish
Last but not least about the sawfish facts is that sawfish become the first fish that is listed endangered in the US. This is because here are high intention to catch and kill this species of fish for its snout. And the government there already make a regulations to protect this species of fish.
See also: Endangered Species in The Ocean Biome – Endangered Species of the Ocean
These sawfish facts that I have explain to you maybe is only some from many more facts bout sawfish. But hopefully, from these facts you can finally learn more about sawfish and aware more about its condition. And by then you can now realize that it is important to protect the diversity and also creature both in land and sea. Thank you so much for reading this article and keep following us on deepoceanfacts.com for more interesting yet informative articles to come just for you.