Striped lyrefish

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Striped lyrefish
male

male

Systematics
Spinefish (Acanthopterygii)
Perch relatives (Percomorphaceae)
Order : Pipefish (Syngnathiformes)
Subordination : Lyrefish (Callionymoidei)
Family : Lyrefish (Callionymidae)
Type : Striped lyrefish
Scientific name
Callionymus lyra
Linnaeus , 1758
Immature male in whom the bruises are just emerging.

The striped lyrefish (also known as the golden goby ) is an extravagant marine fish that lives on the coasts of northwestern Europe and the northern and western Mediterranean .

Most vernacular names attest to the fish - perhaps because of their colorfulness, scurrying movements, eye play and courtship - something sinister (“spider”, “devil fish”, “little dragon”, “crocodile”, “turtle”, “fox” (the face is somehow snout-like) - καλλιόνυμος (also -ώ-), the “beautiful name”, seems to be just a euphemism . For the unclear meaning of the scientific generic name see Uranoscopus scaber ). With the species name lyra , William Yarrell (1859) suspects an association (Linnés) of the D1 with the strings of a musical instrument.

description

Morphologically, the genus Callionymus is fairly uniform (ground fish; triangular head, short depressed trunk, longer tail, large pectoral and ventral fins). Dandruff and swim bladder are missing.

The striped lyrefish has a rather small, arched, arched, lower mouth with thickened edges ("lips") that can be extended far towards the bottom. The large eyes are close to each other high up on the head, looking to the sides, but, like the chameleon , can also be moved individually and therefore both look up next to each other. The eyes are very well equipped for color vision, which is why the old statement that the fish only occurs in the depths could not be correct. They are covered by a transparent fold of skin ("glasses") so that sand cannot penetrate into the folds of movement that surround them. The space between the eyes is so narrow that the two frontal sensory channels have collapsed into one. The edge of the pupil is golden. The skull is very unusual (see Gregory 1933). Only the jaws are covered with small, pointed teeth. The preoperculum has four thorns on the abdomen, of which the rear is the strongest: although it makes it more difficult for a predator to spit it out if the front, facing forward, has prevented devouring, it aims at general avoidance of eating. They are not related to venom glands, but can cause painful injuries that are difficult to heal. The gill openings are closed except for a small porus on the back side. The gill cover is largely reduced (breathing takes place with the hyoids and the 6 (-7) Branchiostegalradien on both sides; see Uranoscopus scaber ). The sideline is developed normally.

The animals are clearly sexually dimorphic: the sexually mature males (with genital papillae) are larger (30 cm) and more colorful (light blue stripes and spots - an English name is bridegroom ) than the females (25 cm) and immature males (see Fig. - brown with dark bands and spots - initially described as a separate species: " C. dracunculus L. 1758"); its triangular first dorsal fin is very high (the first D-ray, when laid down in a groove, can reach almost to the caudal fin); The second dorsal fin and the anal fin are also larger than in the female, the "snout" is longer. Normally the unpaired fins are carried completely folded up in order to always be able to provide a "surprise". The pectoral fin sits on only three radials. The pelvic fins can shimmer blue, they stand wide apart in front of the pectoral fins. The egg-shaped abdominal area is white, but the "throat" is almost black. The maximum age is 7 years. Females get heavier and older than males.

Fin formula : D1 IV, D2 VII-IX / 1, A VIII / 1, P 19-20, VI / 5, C 10. 21 vertebrae (7 + 14).

Detail from the D2 of the male.

ecology

The striped lyrefish lives on sand and muddy bottoms, close to the surface (also in flood pools), more and more rarely down to a depth of more than 400 m, but preferably at 15-20 ° C. Because of its large fins, like Dactylopterus volitans , it used to be counted among the "flying fish", as its name still shows in Norway. It can adapt its color to the bottom to a certain extent. In the event of danger, it digs in, especially overnight. The diet consists mainly of benthic crustaceans , also in poly-bristles , small molluscs , echinoderms and the like. a .; Even from the free water above the ground, with violent tail beating, food can be snatched up, such as young fish and shrimp.

female
Male. Both drawings from C. Darwin (²1877): The descent of man.

Sexual Behavior and Development

The sexual dimorphism already indicates that the mature males are incompatible ( territorial ) and will courtship in front of their females. The courtship is still insufficiently observed. The male swims and scurries around the female and hectically presents his colorful fins in front of him. Apparently the aim is to swim a little vertically upwards belly to belly. If spawning occurs afterwards while sinking, the male embraces the female so tightly that the eggs are fertilized on his broad anal fin; but then they drift away: eggs and larvae are pelagic . It is unusual for a territorial, courting fish not to take care of its brood - but the lyrefish simply needs the pelagic distribution stage - spawning takes place between January and August, but mostly from February to June (maximum: March and April). The eggs are spherical, 0.7 to 0.95 mm in diameter and have no oil droplets. Their surface has a honeycomb structure. A few hundred to around four thousand are released at a time. The larvae are among the smallest of the Teleosts: When the larva begins to eat, it is sometimes less than 2 mm long. The fish then grows very quickly and can become sexually mature at 14 cm (age 3+). There are slightly more males than females. The males become three, four or five years old and die of exhaustion after the act - they only spawn once (whether this also applies to the females has not yet been clarified).

distribution

The striped lyrefish is most common between England, the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay , always near the coast. It is often around Great Britain and Ireland and in the southern North Sea (with a tendency to spread). The entire area stretches from Iceland , the Faroe Islands , Norway into the western Baltic Sea , into the Mediterranean (except for its southeastern part; also into the Black Sea) to the Canaries and Azores , Madeira and Mauritania . Sometimes it even penetrates into estuaries.

meaning

The striped lyrefish itself is an important nourishing animal for larger fish (such as conger eel , cod , Johns fish , crocodile fish ), bottom sharks , rays and seals . Although its white meat is considered to be excellent (Brehms Tierleben, vol. 8, 1892, p. 145), it is rarely caught deliberately because it is too small. Losses as bycatch mean that old animals are becoming increasingly rare. Almost 100% of the lyre fish thrown back into the sea as undesirable bycatch do not survive the procedure. In general, they are very sensitive to rough treatment. For many physiological experiments, especially on breathing, the sense of sight and the effects of pollutants, they have proven to be well suited objects. As colorful ground fish, they are occasionally represented in public marine aquariums and sometimes spawn here. After some hesitation, they accept frozen and even dry food (in contrast to Synchiropus splendidus, for example ).

relationship

The genus Callionymus currently comprises almost 100 species with a distribution center in the Indo-Pacific. It occurs in the tropics worldwide, least of all in the Eastern Pacific.

The relationship between the Callionymidae has long been a problem. The otoliths are similar to those of the wrasse . Gregory (1933) considers on the basis of osteological characteristics that they could be derived Antarctic fish (Notothenioidei). Today one thinks more of a sister group relationship to the sea ​​cocks (Dactylopteridae), which is based on molecular biological similarities. Apparently there are no connections to shield fish (Gobiesocoidei) or slime fish (Blennioidei), at most external similarities (e.g. due to slime skin).

literature

  • MB Anthony: Contribution á l'étude de l'éthologie et des caractères morphologiques chez Callionymus lyra In: L.- Bull. Mus. Natl. hist. nat. Paris 21: 1915, pp. 118-129. (Exact description of the safety digging, breathing, etc.)
  • Hans A. Baensch , Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 1 , Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1997, ISBN 3-88244-110-0
  • H. Kayser: Comparative study on pre-stretching mechanisms of the upper jaw in fish. The structure and function of the jaw and gill apparatus of bony fish of the genera Ammodytes and Callionymus. In: Zool. Contribution (NF) 7: 1962, pp. 321-446.
  • Bent J. Muus, Jørgen G. Nielsen: The marine fish of Europe in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Atlantic. Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07804-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The striking blue is, as with most vertebrates, structure color ("color of thin leaflets"): EJ Denton, MF Land: Mechanism of reflection in silvery layers of fish and cephalopods. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing papers of a Biological character. Royal Society (Great Britain). Volume 178, Number 1050, June 1971, ISSN  0080-4649 , pp. 43-61, PMID 4397267 . The related Synchiropus splendidus , on the other hand, has a blue pigment as a major exception among fish
  2. ^ A b Pauline A. King, Julie M. Fives, David McGrath: Reproduction, growth and feeding of the dragonet, Callionymus lyra (Teleostei: Callionymidae), in Galway Bay, Ireland. In: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. 74 (1994): pp. 513-526 doi : 10.1017 / S0025315400047639
  3. ↑ Hsiao-Wei Chang: Age and growth of Callionymus lyra In: L.- J. mar. biol. ass. UK 30: 1951, pp. 281-296.
  4. ↑ K. Ramsay, MJ Kaiser, PG Moore, RN Hughes: Consumption of fisheries discards by benthic scavengers: utilization of energy subsidies in different marine habitats. In: Journal of Animal Ecology 66: 1997, pp. 884-896.
  5. ↑ GM Hughes, Shun-Ichi Umezawa: On Respiration in the Dragonet Callionymus lyra . In: Journal of Experimental Biology. 49, 1968, pp. 565-582. [1]
  6. ↑ TJ Near, A. Dornburg u. a .: Phylogeny and tempo of diversification in the superradiation of spiny-rayed fishes. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 110, Number 31, July 2013, ISSN  1091-6490 , pp. 12738-12743, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1304661110 . PMID 23858462 . PMC 3732986 (free full text).

Web links

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