monkfish
| monkfish | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lophius piscatorius | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The monkfish ( Lophius piscatorius ), also frogfish or Lotte called, is a fish from the order of the anglerfish . The term trout sturgeon is ambiguous and therefore not permitted in food law. It lives in the north-eastern Atlantic from the coast of Morocco to Norway and the south coast of Iceland , but also near the Azores , the Mediterranean , the Adriatic , the Aegean and the Black Sea . It stays at depths of 20 to 1000 meters.
features
Anglerfish have a flattened, scaly body and an extremely large, wide, and flattened head with a huge mouth with powerful teeth. They can be a maximum of two meters long and weigh over 50 kg, but rarely reach lengths of one meter. They are similar to the black anglerfish , the main difference being the light-colored abdominal skin in the body cavity - that of the black anglerfish is black - and the eleven to twelve fin rays in the second dorsal fin. The lower jaw and the sides of the head and body are lined with skin tags. The first ray of the dorsal fin is designed as a fishing rod (Illicium) with attached bait (Esca). The maximum proven age of the anglerfish is 24 years.
- Fin formula : dorsal VIII / 11–12, anal 9–10.
Way of life
Anglerfish live on the ocean floor at depths of 20 to 1000 meters. The species feeds mainly on fish that are attracted with the Illicium and sucked in by suddenly opening its huge mouth. Sometimes they swim pelagically and the remains of seabirds have been found in their stomachs.
Reproduction
The fish spawn around the British Isles from April to June and each shed up to a million purple eggs that hold together in a spawning belt that can be 15 to 45 cm wide and eight to ten meters long. The spawning belt floats freely in the water, is torn apart by waves and currents and the spawn is distributed so widely. The larvae that hatch from it live pelagic and keep themselves in suspension with greatly elongated fin rays. With a length of 6 to 8 cm, they go over to soil life. Males reach sexual maturity with a length of 40 cm, females with 70 cm in length. You are then about 6 years old.
use
Monkfish have good meat that remains firm and almost white even after preparation. They are fished as bycatch in longline fisheries and with trawls . In the grocery store you usually only find the monkfish tail and the monkfish cheeks. The term trout sturgeon is used instead of the actual name.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Waldemar Ternes , Alfred Täufel, Lieselotte Tunger, Martin Zobel (eds.): Food Lexicon . 4th, comprehensively revised edition. Behr, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89947-165-2 . , Page 91
literature
- Bent J. Muus, Jørgen G. Nielsen; Preben Dahlström and Bente Olesen Nyström (illustrations): The marine fish of Europe. In the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic . (Original title: Havfisk og fiskeri i Nordvesteuropa 1998, translated by Matthias Stehmann), Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07804-3 .
Web links
- Monkfish on Fishbase.org (English)
- The monkfish at FischDB
- fischinfo.de (PDF; 238 kB)