What is the largest fish in the world?

The largest fish in the world is the whale shark. Its scientific name is Rhincodon typus, and it is the largest known living fish species.

Despite its enormous size, the whale shark is a gentle filter feeder rather than a predator of large animals. It strains plankton, krill, fish eggs, and small schooling fish from seawater using specialized structures near its gills. It can process thousands of liters of water every hour.

Whale sharks are sharks, but their skeletons are made of cartilage rather than bone. They live mainly in warm tropical and subtropical oceans and often migrate to seasonal feeding areas, including Ningaloo Reef in Australia and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

A common mix-up is the blue whale, which is the largest animal ever known but is a mammal, not a fish. The whale shark is also the largest living non-cetacean animal.