Fish of the Echeneis genus of the Echeneidae (remoras or suckerfish) family of the superfamily Percoidea of the Perciformes order of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Live sharksucker. Photo by © Pietro Columba. flickr.com/photos/24823485@N06)
Live sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It inhabits the depth of 1-85 meters and prefers to swim near the coast. It sticks to sharks, rays, large bony fishes, and turtles temporarily, but they are often found free-floating as well. The maximum recorded length is 110 cm, specimens up to 70 cm long are more common. The maximum weight is 2.3 kilograms. It feeds on small fish, squids, crabs, food leftovers that come with a large fish and parasites from its body.
(Live sharksucker. Photo by © Joseph De Vroe. fishbase.org)
It enters the Adriatic Sea together with its “masters”.
Names of live sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates) in other languages as follows:
Κολλησόψαρο (Kollisopsaro) (Greek), Pegatimón (Spanish), Remora (Italian), Gestreifter Schiffshalter (German), Podnawka (Polish), Обыкновенный прилипало (Obyknovennij prilipalo) (Russian), Priljepuša golema (Serbian, Croatian), Vantuz balığı (Turkish), Rémora commun (French), Štítovec lodivod (Czech).