Blue fish
| Blue fish | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blue fish ( Pomatomus saltatrix ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Pomatomidae | ||||||||||||
| Gill , 1862 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pomatomus | ||||||||||||
| Lacépède , 1802 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Pomatomus saltatrix | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The bluefish ( Pomatomus saltatrix , Syn. : Temnodon saltator ), and bluefish , belongs to the Scombriformes and is the only member of the family Pomatomidae. It lives in the Atlantic , the Mediterranean , the Black Sea , the Indian Ocean and the southwestern Pacific in tropical and subtropical regions. In winter it moves to warmer waters, in summer to cooler ones.
etymology
The generic name is derived from the ancient Greek words πῶμα ( pṓma ) for "lid" and τόμος ( tómos ) for "part", "(section)", which is shortened by haplology from pomatotomus to pomatomus . It refers to the special formation of the gill cover region (see below ). The species epithet saltatrix is Latin and means "dancer", which refers to the graceful movements of the fish, which the first person to describe it, Carl von Linné, noticed at the time.
features
The animals are up to 1.30 meters long, weigh almost 15 kilograms and are nine years old. They are dark blue to greenish on the upper side, lighter on the underside. The two dorsal fins are clearly separated, the first is low and is supported by 7 to 8 short fin spines, the second by a fin spine and 23 to 28 soft rays. The anal fin has three spines and 23 to 27 soft rays. The soft-rayed sections of the dorsal and anal fin are covered by scales. The number of vertebrae is 26.
One of the Ventralast Praeoperculare for outbound skin flap covers. T. the subopercular (probably for hydrodynamic advantage) and justifies the scientific generic name (see above ). There is a black spot on the base of the pectoral fin (probably a dummy eye , often found in marine fish).
Way of life
Blue fish are predatory fish that hunt herrings , mullets , crabs and cephalopods in small groups . They often hunt together with sharks and sword fish , fan fish and spear fish . They are supposed to kill more prey than they can eat. Young and teenagers can be found in schools near the coast, often in brackish estuaries .
Systematics
The blue fish is the only species in the genus Pomatomus and the family Pomatomidae. Phylogenetically it is close to the mackerel and is the sister species of a clade of black mackerel ( Scombrolabrax heterolepis ), snake mackerel (Gempylidae), hairtail (Trichiuridae) and mackerel and tuna (Scombridae).
fishing
Blue fish are caught by humans because of the excellent tasting meat and are now considered overfished. Besides Pomatomus saltatrix also occasionally Köhler (lat. Pollachius virens , Eng. Coal fish or rock salmon ), also known as pollock is known as bluefish referred.
literature
- Kurt Fiedler: Fish (= textbook of special zoology. Vol. 2: Vertebrates. Part. 2). Gustav Fischer, Jena 1991, ISBN 3-334-00338-8 .
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ et al. 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- ↑ Thomas M. Orrell, Bruce B. Collette, G. David Johnson: Molecular data support separate scombroid and xiphioid clades. In: Bulletin of Marine Science. Vol. 79, No. 3, 2006, ISSN 0007-4977 , pp. 505-519, ( online ).
Web links
- Pomatomus saltatrix on Fishbase.org (English)
- Family Pomatomidae - Bluefishes on Fishbase.org (English)