REMORA, or SUCKING-FISH, a popular name for any species of the family Echineiaida and order Discocepliali. It is about eight inches long and common in the Mediterranean. The top of the head is provided with a peculiar sucking disc, a modification of the spinous dor sal fin, composed of a series of plates arranged transversely, by means of which they attach themselves to moving objects and thus sup plement their powers of locomotion. On the coast of Zanzibar and elsewhere they arc used in catching other fishes and turtles, the remora being secured by a line fixed to the tail, and being sent in pursuit of the turtles, etc., to which it attaches itself by means of its sucker. The ancients believed in the remora's power of arresting and detaining ships in full sail through their suctorial powers; and Antony's galley at the battle of Actium was said to have been fixed by a remora, which defied the efforts of several hundreds of men to free the vessel.
The remoras are a group of oceanic fishes occupying a rather isolated position among the spiny-rayed Telcostomi. Five genera and eight species have been recorded from North Amer ican waters. Some of them appear to confine their attentions to particular species of large fishes, as the spear-fish, dolphins, etc.; others are less particular. The common species on the Atlantic Coast of the United States are the shark-sucker (Eclzencis naucrates), very f re quentlY found• adhering to large sharks 'as well as to other fishes; Remora brachyptera, the sword-fish remora; and Remora remora, a spe cies widely distributed in' warm seas. They are not utilized for food nor for any other purpose in this country.