REMORA, or SUCKING-FISH, Echeneis, a genus of fishes which Cuvier placed among the discoboli (q.v.), but which Muller assigns to the order anacanths, and regards as con stituting an entire family, echeneithe. Their chief relation to the discoboli, indeed, is in the possession of a sucker, by which to affix themselves to objects of various kinds; but the sucker itself is very different. The remoras have an elongated body, covered with very small scales; one soft-rayed dorsal fin, situated above the anal fin; the head flattened, and covered with an elongated disk extending back beyond it, which is the sucker, the mouth large, with numerous small recurved teeth on both jaws, the vomer, and the tongue. The sucker-disk exhibits numerous transverse cartilaginous laminae directed backward, and has a free flexible broad margin. These laminae are formed by modifica tion of the spinous processes of a first dorsal fin. They are moved simultaneously by sets of muscles raising or depressing them, and when they are raised after the margin the disk has been closely applied to a smooth surface, a vacuum is created; and so power ful is this apparatus, that great weights may be dragged by a remora; whilst it refuses to let go its hold, and will even submit to be torn to pieces before it does so. The common remora of the Mediterranean, and of the ancients, is a small fish, seldom more than S in. long, of a dusky-brown color. It is found in the Atlantic, and occasionally as
far n. as the,British coast. It is frequently seen among the other fishes following ships, and often attaches itself by its sucker to some other fish, even of a kind that would make haste to devour it if it could be reached—an instance of which once occurred on the British coast, a remora being taken affixed to a cod—often also to the rudder or bottom of a ship. The ancients imagined that it had power to impede or arrest the course of a ship, a fable which continued to be credited till recent times. Thus, it was alleged, was Antony's ship detained from getting soon enough into action in the memo rable and decisive battle of Actium. Of what use its power of adhesion is to the remora, is matter of mere conjecture. The remora is very palatable. There are about ten known species, some of the tropical ones much larger than the common remora. One of them is said, on the authority of Commerson, to be used on the coasts of Mozambique for tire curious purpose of catching turtles. A ring is fixed round its tail, with a long cord, and the fish, placed in a vessel of sea-water, is carried out in a boat.; the fishermen row gently toward a sleeping turtle, and throw the remora toward•it, which seldom fails immediately to affix itself, when the cord is drawn in, and the turtle becomes an easy, prey.