Star flounder
| Star flounder | ||||||||||||
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Star flounder ( Platichthys stellatus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Platichthys stellatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Pallas , 1787) |
The starfish ( Platichthys stellatus ) is a flatfish native to the coastal waters of the northern Pacific . They live from Japan across the Bering Sea , along the coasts of Alaska and Canada to Santa Barbara . The starfish prefers brackish water and lives near the coast, often in estuaries. It wanders up to 120 km up the rivers.
features
The star flounder has an oval, asymmetrical, laterally strongly flattened body. The dorsal , caudal and anal fins have alternating dark and light (white or orange) zones. The dorsal fin begins above the center of the upper eye. The dark brown or almost black side of the eye is covered with rough, star-shaped scales. The blind side is white or cream-colored, in rare cases it is partially or completely the same color as the eye side. The caudal fin is rounded.
On the Pacific coast of Canada and the USA, the eyes of 60 to 70% of starfish are on the left side of the body, the rest are right-eyed. On the coast of Alaska and near Japan there are almost only left-eyed specimens. Star flounder are a maximum of 90 centimeters long and reach a maximum weight of 9 kg.
Fin formula : dorsal 52–66, anal 38–47
Way of life
Star flounder live near the coast and in estuaries in summer and migrate to deeper water in winter. They avoid water with a high salt content. They feed on crustaceans , worms, small molluscs , brittle stars and small fish. It hybridizes with Parophrys vetulus and Kareius bicoloratus .
literature
- William N. Eschmeyer, Earl S. Herald: A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes of North America. From the Gulf of Alaska to Baja, California. Houghton Mifflin, Boston MA 1983, ISBN 0-395-33188-9 .
Web links
- Sternflunder on Fishbase.org (English)
- Platichthys stellatus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: NatureServe, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2014.