Buffy Silverman - Do You Know about Fish?

To Emma, with love,

as you set off to school

with other fish

Copyright 2010 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing
Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.
Lerner Publications Company
A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.
Website address: www.lernerbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Silverman, Buffy.
Do you know about fish? / by Buffy Silverman.
p. cm. (Lightning bolt booksTMMeet the animal groups)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9780822575405 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) 1. FishesJuvenile literature. I. Title.
QL617.2.S57 2010
597dc22 2008048904
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 BP 15 14 13 12 11 10
eISBN: 978-0-7613-8882-1

Contents

page

page

page

page

page

Glossary

page

Further Reading

page

Index

page

All
Shapes and Sizes

Fish live in water. They swim
in ponds, streams, lakes, and
oceans.
Fish come in all shapes and
sizes. Some are huge. Whale
sharks grow longer than your
classroom. Others are tiny.
Goby fish are smaller
than a coin.

Goby fish
are tiny.

Fish swim in
the warm
Indian Ocean.

Most fish cannot make their
own body heat. Fish warm up
or cool down with the water
they live in. This kind of
animal is called an ectotherm.

Fish: Inside
and Out

Fish are shaped for slipping
through water. They wave
their tails to swim. Sailfish
have long tails. Their tails
help sailfish speed underwater.

Sailfish travel as
fast as cars on
the highway.

Most fish have fins. Fins on
the top and bottom keep a fish
from rolling over. Pairs of
fins on the sides of a
fishs body
help it
steer.

This shark has
fins on its tail,
back, and sides.

Fins help fish move through
the water. Fish use their fins
to turn and stop.

The lionfishs
fins look like
a lions mane.

Many fish are covered with scales.
Hard scales protect their skin.

This picture shows a
salmons scales close up.
Scales fit together like
shingles on a roof.

A sharks scales look like tiny
teeth. All the scales point
toward the sharks tail. That
helps the shark slip through
the water as it swims.

These are
scales on
a dogfish
shark.

A porcupine fish puffs up
when it is in danger.

Can you feel bones in
your back? Fish have
backbones too. Animals
with backbones are called
vertebrates.

Can you see this tetra
fish s backbone?

The whale shark is the worlds
largest fish. Like other fish,
its backbone runs from its
head to its tail.

The backbone is part of a fishs
skeleton. The skeleton gives a
fish its shape.

Like you, fish must breathe. But
fish breathe in water. A fish
breathes with its gills. A fish
opens its mouth. Water flows in.
It closes its mouth, pushing water
over its gills. That way, a fish
gets oxygen from water.

You can see
gills inside this
fish s mouth.

Fish have small openings on
the sides of their heads. Water
passes over the gills and then
goes out of these openings. In
fish like sharks, these openings
are called gill slits.

A lemon shark has five gill slits
on each side of its head.

Fish look for food
on a coral reef.

Staying
Safe

Many animals eat fish. But
fish know when other animals
swim near them. They have
tubes along the outsides of
their bodies. The tubes are
called lateral lines. They help
fish sense moving water. The
tubes help fish keep
away from
danger.

This fish has a stripe
along its lateral line.

Some fish stay safe by helping
big fish. Cleaner fish swim
inside a groupers mouth.
Will the grouper swallow
them?

No! Cleaner fish eat food
that is trapped between the
groupers teeth.

Cleaner fish
swim around a
groupers mouth.