Common garfish
| Common garfish | ||||||||||||
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Common garfish ( Belone belone ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Belone belone | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1760) |
The common garfish ( belone belone ) is a very slender marine fish that is found in the northeastern Atlantic and its tributaries.
features
The common garfish grows to a maximum of 90 centimeters and can weigh up to 1.3 kg. However, it usually remains 45 to 70 centimeters long and rarely weighs more than one kg. The only dorsal and anal fins are at the same height, far back, just before the tail fin stalk. They are supported by 16 to 20 or 10 to 23 rays. The caudal fin is forked. The number of vertebrae is 75 to 84. Both jaws are elongated and form a tweezer-like beak, which is occupied by comparatively large teeth placed far outwards. The lower jaw is a little longer than the upper jaw. In specimens more than 20 cm in length, the ploughshare leg is also toothed. The skeleton and bones of the cooked garfish are green ("green bones"). This unusual color is caused by the harmless pigment biliverdin (see also eel mother ).
Subspecies and distribution
There are three subspecies,
- the nominate form Belone belone belone (Linnaeus, 1760) in the northeast Atlantic ( Iceland and Northern Norway) across the North and Western Baltic Sea to the Biscay ,
- Belone belone euxini Günther, 1866, in the Black and Azov Seas , and
- Belone belone acus Risso, 1827, in the Mediterranean and the bordering regions of the Atlantic from Madeira over the Azores , the Canary Islands to Cape Verde .
Way of life
Common garfish are schooling fish that usually swim just below the surface of the sea. As diurnal predatory fish, they feed on small fish such as sand eels , young herrings , sardines and anchovies . Similar to the mackerel , they undertake long feeding migrations. On the run from their predators, especially dolphins and tuna , they jump far out of the water or pierce the surface of the water at an angle in order to flee with rapid strokes of the tail fins. The pointed, bony front end of the garfish can injure people if the fish are afraid.
Reproduction
Common garfish spawn in shallow water mainly from May to June, possibly several times a year. Depending on their size, the females lay 1,000 to 35,000 eggs that are 3 to 3.5 mm in diameter. 60 to 80 eggs are attached to stones or growth with 20 mm long sticky filaments. The larvae hatch after three to five weeks. They are then 13 mm long and do not yet show an elongated upper jaw. The lower jaw initially grows up to a length of 45 mm, so that the animals resemble the related half-beaked pike . With a length of 12 cm, the fish resemble the adult and show a beak-like jaw that is only slightly shorter at the top than at the bottom. They reach sexual maturity with a length of 45 cm and an age of two years.
Others
Common garfish are caught with gill nets and floating lines. Their white meat is marketed and prepared fresh, as frozen fish fillet or grilled and baked.
A common name is hornfish , in GDR times the name worker eel or allis shad was also used.
literature
- 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
- ↑ Kurt Fiedler: Textbook of Special Zoology, Volume II, Part 2: Fish . Page 319, Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1991, ISBN 3-334-00339-6
Web links
- Garfish on Fishbase.org (English)