Talk:Giant sunfish

Diet section

I am going to assume that the references and information in the article for "Ocean Sunfish" are accurate and close enough to make these assumptions for the validity of the information placed in this article. In the description section of the "Ocean Sunfish" article, mention is made that "Its teeth are fused into a beak-like structure, which prevents them from being able to fully close their mouths, while also having pharyngeal teeth located in the throat." It also details, "In temperate regions, drifting kelp fields harbor cleaner wrasses and other fish which remove parasites from the skin of visiting sunfish. In the tropics, M. mola solicits cleaning help from reef fishes. By basking on its side at the surface, the sunfish also allows seabirds to feed on parasites from its skin. Sunfish have been reported to breach, clearing the surface by approximately 3 m (10 ft), in an apparent effort to dislodge embedded parasites.". To me, this establishes a clear symbiotic relationship between the Ocean Sunfish and both cleaner fishes and seabirds. Side note, a look at the talk section for the page shows that editors were seriously unsure of the claim that they can breach up to 10ft, and that the National Geographic source later referenced came almost a year after the Wikipedia article made this claim without a source. No other source has been found, and it is possible the National Geographic author may have received this information, potentially false, from the Wikipedia article. It deserves to be questioned and looked into again.

Back to this "Giant Sunfish page". It says, "It is also known for sunfish to swim up to the shallow water to eat cleaner fish and seabirds at the surface."??? If they are as similar to Ocean Sunfish as they seem, they can't even close their fused-tooth beak-like jaw, and I am doubtful their pharyngeal teeth will do much to break up a seabird. More likely, they have the same behavior and symbiotic relationship that Ocean Sunfish have! Seems like a severe error to me. But hey, maybe the heaviest bony fish is indeed flying 10 ft in the air to eat birds like some kind of pokemon, rather than the gentle meandering general predator all other information makes it out to be. You tell me. I lack the experience to edit correctly, this is the first page I am addressing, so until I learn how to do it right, I invite someone with more experience to take a look. Thanks.

Also, if there are differences between the types of sunfish, it may be helpful to state the entire name in those sentences to avoid causing people to generalize information to all subtypes of sunfish. But yeah, I am quite positive the sentence is bogus. Strattuscloud (talk) 00:12, 18 March 2023 (UTC)