Green kelp
| Green kelp | ||||||||||||
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male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hexagrammos decagrammus | ||||||||||||
| ( Pallas , 1810) |
The green kelp ( Hexagrammos decagrammus ) is a marine fish that is found on the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada from the Aleutian island of Amchitka south to La Jolla in southern California . The species is rare on the coast of southern California and common in the north.
features
The fish species has an elongated body, reaches a length of 50 to 60 cm, a maximum weight of 2.1 kg and shows a clear gender dichromatism, that is, males and females are colored differently. Females are gray to brownish and densely patterned with small reddish brown to gold colored dots. The fins are yellowish to orange. Males have a gray to brownish olive base color and show irregular blue spots on the front body, which are surrounded by small red-brown dots. The inside of the mouth is yellow. There is often a spot at the end of the second, soft-rayed dorsal fin. Like all Hexagrammos species, the green kelp has five side lines . The caudal fin is rounded. The anal fin usually has a soft fin spine.
- Fins formula : dorsal XXI – XXII / 24, anal I / 23–24.
The green kelp can be distinguished from other Hexagrammos species mainly by its color.
Way of life
The green kelp lives solitary and close to the coast in kelp forests on rocks, more rarely over sandy soils down to a depth of 46 meters. It feeds on crustaceans, bristle worms, brittle stars, molluscs and small fish. Young green kelp fish are prey for steelhead trout (the anadromous migrating form of rainbow trout ) and other salmon fish .
In California, fish spawn in December and January in water temperatures of 9 to 12 ° C. The egg ball, the size of a golf or tennis ball, is placed on a firm surface or on barnacles or hydrozoa and guarded by the male until the fish larvae hatch. One male can guard up to ten egg balls from different females. The eggs are 2.2 to 2.5 mm in diameter and an egg ball can contain 1,000 to 10,000 eggs. At a temperature of 10 ° C, the fish larvae hatch after about 30 days. The green kelp can live to be 18 years old. They are fished quite often.
literature
- Eschmeyer, Herald, Hamann: Pacific Coast Fishes , Peterson Field Guides, ISBN 0-395-33188-9 , p. 155
Individual evidence
- ↑ Baensch / Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 6 Non-Perciformes , Mergus-Verlag, Melle 1998, ISBN 3-88244-116-X , p. 522
Web links
- Kelpgrünling on Fishbase.org (English)