Live Sharksucker
Echeneis naucrates
Common Remora
Remora remora
About
The common remora hitches a ride through life, riding sharks, whales, dolphins, and sea turtles rather than swimming on its own.
Also known as: common remora, shark sucker, sharksucker, remora, suckerfish, Remora remora
- Length
- 40 cm · max 86 cm
- Depth
- 5–40 m
Appearance
Its body is brown, black, or grey, and can grow up to 86 cm long, though most stay near 40 cm. On top of its head sits a flattened, oval sucker fin that works like a suction cup, letting it grip onto a much larger animal.
Behaviour
It attaches to a host such as a shark, whale, dolphin, or turtle, gaining fast-moving water to breathe, transport, a share of food, and protection. In return it eats some of the host's parasites, though its drag slows the host slightly. It can stay attached to one host for up to three months, and it will shift its grip if it feels threatened. Because it needs flowing water over its gills to breathe, it cannot survive in still water.
Is it dangerous?
Harmless. It has no teeth or spine that matter to a diver, though a loose one will occasionally try to attach to a wetsuit or a tank.
Did you know?
It cannot survive in still water at all - the flow created by its host swimming is what lets it breathe.
Log it in Into the Blue
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