Small snake needle
| Small snake needle | ||||||||||||
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Small snake needle ( Nerophis ophidion ) |
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| Nerophis ophidion | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Little Snake needle ( Nerophis ophidion ) is a Seenadelart that on the coasts of the eastern Atlantic from Norway to Morocco, around the British Isles , the Mediterranean , the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea occurs. It is missing on the North Sea coast of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. In the Baltic Sea it occurs from the Kattegat to the level of Stockholm and the Estonian island of Saaremaa .
features
The small snake needle has a very elongated, thin body and is up to 30 centimeters long. Males stay a little smaller. The body is armored by 28 to 33 bony ring plates. The snout with the upper mouth is drawn out tubular. The pectoral, belly, anal and caudal fins are missing. The anus is located below the front end of the dorsal fin.
Way of life
The fish live mainly on shallow coasts in seagrass and seaweed meadows at depths of 2 to 15 meters, where they usually stay on the bottom between the seaweed and are well camouflaged by their shape. They feed mainly on small crustaceans, fish spawn and fish larvae, which they suck up with their tubular mouths.
The Rogner spawn from May to August , attaching around 200 to 300 eggs to the male's abdomen with the help of their elongated genital papilla. The males fertilize the eggs and carry them around with them until the fry hatch. Each male carries the eggs of a single female, but females can spawn with multiple males. The fry are 9 mm long when they hatch and initially live pelagic . They reach sexual maturity at the age of two.
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 .
Web links
- Small snake needle on Fishbase.org (English)