Last week I gave you this lovely fishy from the Dead Zoo to try identifying:

I think everyone recognised that this specimen is a member of the Molidae – that’s the family containing the Sunfish. But the tricky bit was working out which of the five living species it might be.

I didn’t include a scale, because it would have made it a bit too easy. Most of the Sunfish are very large – on average well over 2m long, with some over 3m. They’re also heavy – most weighing in at over 2 tonnes and with a specimen of the Southern Sunfish recognised as the biggest bony fish on record at 2,744kg.

However, the mystery specimen is a lot more svelt, as it’s from the smallest species – the Slender (or Truncated) Sunfish Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776).

So I offer my congratulations to everyone who managed to work it out, with Adam Yates making the first comment to indicate the species. It’s worth noting Allen Hazen’s observation that the paint job on this specimen is not really very accurate. – although this isn’t unusal for fish taxidermy.

All that’s left to say on this is that this Slender Sunfish was a much easier object to move than its Ocean Sunfish cousin, who was much bigger and even less slender than me…