A few days (species dependent) after hatching, the larvae begin to swim with a tilt and one eye starts to force its way over the top of the head to the other side, twisting the skull in the process. On hatching, flounder eggs give rise to tiny transparent larvae that live in the water column and feed on plankton like other fish larvae. Larval flatfish (Family Bothidae, species unknown) with one eye on either side of its body, which is bilaterally symmetrical and dorso-laterally compressed. During early development however, young flatfishes lose all semblance of normalcy, undergoing one of the most difficult puberties in the animal kingdom, where they transition from cute bilaterally symmetric fishes into total anatomical anomalies. Rather, newly hatched bothids, which are between 1.5 and 3 mm, have one eye on either side of their head and swim vertically – just like normal fishes. Yes, bothids have both eyes on one side of their body…well, at least the adults do!Īmazingly, flatfishes do NOT start out flat or with both eyes on the same side of their body. These fishes are commonly called “lefteye flounders” because the adults lie on the seafloor on their right sides with both eyes on their left. More than ten species have been recorded in the Caribbean, with eight species present in Trinidad and Tobago waters. There are a couple of other small members of the sole family and the rare megrim.Today’s larval blog focuses on “flatfishes” belonging to the Family Bothidae (pronounced both-ee-day) (~140 spp.), which are found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. They are also more closely related to the dab than the Dover sole. Lemon sole have very small mouths and are rarely caught on hook and line. The major angling flatfish are plaice, dab, flounder, Dover sole, turbot and brill. Here we have a brief guide to what to look out for when figuring out which species of flatfish you have just caught… The various flatfish found around our coastline are all very similar in shape and colour, so identifying them can sometimes prove difficult.
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