Talk:Pelagic fish

Hammerhead
The coverage of the scalloped hammerhead in this article seems misplaced. Its range is mostly very shallow waters such as estuaries and inlets, so any reference to it under Pelagic Fish seems dubious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wcoole (talk • contribs) 00:35, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't think it is out of place to include it among pelagic fish. For example, Fishbase categorises the scalloped hammerhead as "pelagic-oceanic; oceanodromous", and characterises it as a "coastal-pelagic, semi-oceanic shark occurring over continental and insular shelves and adjacent deep water, often approaching close inshore and entering enclosed bays and estuaries... found in inshore and offshore waters to about 275 m depth" --Epipelagic (talk) 03:10, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

Section on Demersal fish
I feel the section on demersal fish is out of focus. In an article about pelagic fish, demersal fish are relevant basically because the distinction between demersal and pelagic is not always clear-cut. This is not the angle taken, the section is more like a stand-alone text where the link to the pelagic is missing. Bentho-pelagic subsection could be promoted to a section, whereas Benthic fish section should mention that "classic" benthic species may have pelagic larvae or juveniles. Micromesistius (talk) 15:37, 21 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Well I wanted to make it clear that demersal = benthopelagic + strictly benthic, because it seem to me that these terms often get mixed up. That is why benthopelagic is a subsection of demersal. There is also a stand-alone article on demersal fish. I agree, larvae and juveniles can be mentioned in passing, and there are other articles here and here where they could also be mentioned. Wikipedia has no decent stuff sofar on juvenile fish or fish life cycles. Anyway, please feel free to make changes you want, or propose them here if you feel we should discuss them first. --Epipelagic (talk) 22:16, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Zone diagram seems incomplete
Hi, I'm entirely ignorant about fish and oceanography, but something seems to be amiss in the diagram in the lede, which reads:

"Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters – being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore – in contrast with demersal fish, which do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish, which are associated with coral reefs.[1]"

But the diagram shows the pelagic zone as extending right to the ocean floor, and omits the Demersal zone (which must make it difficult for the demersal fish) and the muddy Benthic zone. These zones are shown in the template in the Pelagic zone article. There are other similar diagrams on the interwebs which also omit the two lowest zones: where do these diagrams originate? Are there two schools of thought, or is something just wrong? >MinorProphet (talk) 07:12, 24 May 2015 (UTC)


 * I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with the diagrams. It might help if you look at File:Oceanic divisions.svg. Starting at the left, if you follow the sea floor down from the surface then both the benthic zone (on the sea floor itself and within the bottom sediments) and the benthopelagic zone (the free water immediately above the benthic zone) occur continuously all the way down to the very deepest depths. This is true all the way down, starting from the surface or epipelagic depths right down to the abyssal and hadal depths. The demersal zone is the benthic zone plus the benthopelagic zone, that is, it is the zone that is at or near the bottom. So just as the benthic and benthopelagic zones can occur at all depths, so can the demersal zone. You can talk for example, about mesopelagic benthic life, which would be marine life that live on the seafloor or within its sediments at mesopelagic depths (which are the depths found some way down the continental slope). Or you could talk about epipelagic demersal fish, which would include fish which live on or near the bottom in the relatively shallow waters that occur on the continental shelf, such as stingrays which live mainly on the seafloor itself, and cod which live mainly in the waters just above the sea floor. --Epipelagic (talk) 11:26, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

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Dolphins?
In the section on Oceanic Fish, there is mention of Dolphins which seems a little odd given dolphins are mammals. Is it possible that the writer meant dolphinfish, which are listed in the "Species by pelagic zone" table? Chalky 21:13, 11 February 2020 (UTC) Update: I am going to assume this is the case and edit the text. Feel free to correct this if I am mistaken but please provide context.