Thursday, June 21, 2007

Of sole fishes and flounders

The sole fish is always one that marvels me and many others. Also known as flatfish or flounder, I din know they can be found in our waters till seeing other blogs. Update >> Ron corrected me that actually solefishes and flounders are actually from two distinctly different suborder/family while the collective name of both are flatfishes of the order Pleuronectiformes. As to how to differentiate btw them, perhaps someone can enlighten me?

Heres why they are interesting, they have 2 eyes situated on the same side! However when they are young, they look like any normal fish. But after metamorphosis, one of the eye migrates to the other side.


Whether which side it migrates depends on the species. For this one is the left. ID anyone?

They are benthic and ambush predators. Meaning that they stay at the bottom of the seabed and lie in wait for their prey to come unknowingly. Lying flat on the ground, with the side with both eyes facing up, it is hard for the prey to spot them cos they are so well camouflague (look at the earlier picture, compare with it flipped over). As for why 2 eyes are on the same side, I guess its so obvious that I no need to explain it lao~ =)

Update >>
Thanx to lionel, he found out the ID of this fish. It is possibly the Largetooth Flounder (Pseudorhombus arsius). Defining features includes eyes on the left, and brown spots on the body. They are edible also.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool stuff Siyang! Thanks for finding out the name of the fish. =)

Ange

TS said...

thanx to lionel ya ;p

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