In our article we want to talk about flounder. What it is? Flounder is a flat sea fish that has long been popular for its delicious and very healthy white meat.
Flounder and its subspecies
Speaking about this interesting fish, it should be noted that it has become popular among housewives due to its taste. However, not everyone knows for sure: flounder - sea or river fish? Very often disputes arise about this.
So, in a single group under one name eleven families are combined, including about 570 species. Of the entire set of these fish, only three are freshwater, and all the rest, respectively, are marine.
Appearance of fish
Flounder (sea) swims and looks quite usual, but with age, her eyes and mouth are shifted by one half of the body, which, in turn, becomes very flat and asymmetric. Naturally, the skeleton and internal organs are changing. Adult individuals lie at the bottom of the lower body and only occasionally rise, starting to move in wavy movements.
Sea flounder is a predatory fish, it feeds on bottom living organisms.
Habitat
Flounder refers to those fish that live on the seabed. Sometimes it can be found near the estuaries. As a rule, it swims at depths from ten to two hundred meters, and in the Black and Mediterranean Sea, its habitat expands to four hundred meters. In addition, this fish is also found on the coasts of Scandinavia, Europe, Norway and North Africa.
For life, different species choose different depths, each of them adapts to certain conditions, preferring a certain soil.
Flounder (sea) buries itself in the sand in such a surprising way that it is completely invisible, and only eyes remain on the surface. And they do it very quickly. Using wave-like body movements, they raise sand, then sink to the bottom, and silt settles on them, covering them from above.
Fish habits
No matter which flounder - freshwater or marine, all members of this family are very poor swimmers. Feeling danger, the fish turn over to the rib and swiftly swim away in this position. As soon as the danger has passed, they again fall to the ground and burrow.
Depending on where the flounder lives, it is able to change its color with lightning speed, acquiring the desired shade. The color of the fish depends primarily on the color of the seabed and its pattern. Changing, the flounder achieves such a color to be almost invisible. Such adaptability is called mimicry. But not all representatives of this genus possess this property, but only those that they see. Having lost sight, the fish will no longer be able to change the color of his body as well.
Flounder is a sea fish whose sizes range from a few grams to three hundred kilograms. Weight and size depends primarily on the species. Some individuals reach four meters in length.
Halibut
Many of us have heard of halibut, but everyone knows that this is a flounder. Which fish - river or sea, is certainly not known to many. Meanwhile, halibuts are the largest flounders that live in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. A fish weighing 363 kilograms was recorded, and this is the greatest value known to science. An interesting fact is that this type of flounder is able to live up to the age of fifty. In addition, flounder is a valuable marine commercial fish.
It spawns at great depths - from three hundred to seven hundred meters. To do this, fish choose deep holes, which are usually located along the coast. Halibut mainly spawns off the coast of Norway, as well as off the Faroe Islands, in the Danish Strait, off the coast of Iceland, Scotland, and Greenland.
Industrial Halibut Fishing
Halibut is very much appreciated for its high palatability. However, his capture is strictly controlled. But such a situation is connected, first of all, with the peculiarities of fish life. The fact is that flounders do not form flocks, they swim alone. In addition, halibuts grow very slowly, and therefore large individuals get into the nets of fishermen extremely rarely.
But a way out of this situation was found, because you can raise fish in artificial conditions. For this, young animals are grown in pools. When it reaches a weight of one hundred grams, it is relocated to the backwaters, where halibut grows and develops. Commodity is considered a fish that has reached a mass of two to five kilograms.
Black Sea Kalkan
The flounder that lives in the Black Sea is called a kalkan and is a very valuable and tasty fish. Moreover, it is of commercial importance. For example, in Turkey, a kilogram of Kalkan costs at least fifteen dollars. In the middle of the last century, two to three tons of this fish were caught annually off the coast of Crimea. However, its stocks soon decreased significantly, which led to the prohibition of its capture. Currently, there is no such ban, which leads to a decrease in its number. Fish are caught using multi-kilometer nets that close the migration paths of the fish for spawning. This is the traditional way of catching it. Such a phenomenon is considered illegal, and recently, such capture has become quite widespread, which can lead to a critical decrease in the number of fish in the Black Sea.
Kalkan lives not only in the Black and Azov Seas, but also enters the Mediterranean, as well as at the mouth of the Dnieper and Dniester. This type of flounder prefers sandy and silty soils, and does not fall below one hundred meters. Kalkan, who lives in the Sea of Azov, is called the Azov Sea. It, in principle, is no different, only slightly inferior in size to the Black Sea.
Since this is a predatory fish, its diet includes mollusks, crustaceans, small fish. Young individuals usually prefer crustaceans, while adults tend to eat fish and crabs.
Flounder of Moses
The red least has become home to ten species of flounder. The most famous among them is the flounder of Moses. It is relatively small in size, approximately twenty-five centimeters, lives at a depth of not more than fifteen meters. It feeds on invertebrate animals, moves very little, lies almost all the time, buried in the sand.
Freshwater Flounder
River flounder dwells in freshwater bodies of water. She is able to overcome hundreds of kilometers, entering the sea. This species also belongs to the same family as halibut, but has a much more modest size and weight (five hundred grams).
In the Baltic Sea, quite a lot of river flounder is found, and therefore it is attributed to mass marine species. It has commercial value. A river flounder inhabits a depth of sixteen to eighteen meters, preferring sandy soil.
This species is considered an ordinary resident of the Gulf of Finland, there you will not surprise anyone at all. Moreover, the fact that the fish prefers the southern part of the bay to the north is interesting. This phenomenon is explained quite simply. The Baltic Sea is influenced to a greater extent by the south; here the water is more saline.
During spawning, fish lays a lot of eggs (up to two million). This process takes place in the spring. And in the Gulf of Finland, it lasts from May to June. The female lays eggs directly on the sand or the bottom, and eggs begin to develop already in the water.
Turbo
Turbo is one of the varieties of flounder. Outwardly, it is very similar to a large rhombus and has larger dimensions than a river view. Some individuals reach one meter in length, and the bulk, as a rule, does not grow more than eighty centimeters. A feature of turbot is that this fish has a high body. She is a predator and at the same time has a big mouth.
Her diet includes gerbil, cod, and, oddly enough, river flounder, mollusks and sea cockroaches are also used. The turbot hunts like other flounders, it moves slowly, looking for a potential victim, then waits for it in shelter, changing color. It lives at considerable depths (up to one hundred meters).
Properties of flounder meat
Flounder is of great gastronomic interest in terms of its delicious meat. She has long been loved by many, the reason for this is not only taste, but also its beneficial properties. All types of flounders contain up to twenty percent of proteins and a set of amino acids, and at the same time only three percent of fats. In addition, fish has many vitamins: A, PP, E, B and others. Flounder is a source of omega-3 fatty acids.
It is believed that with the regular use of this type of fish, working capacity and immunity increase, cholesterol levels decrease, the condition of teeth, hair, skin improves, the thyroid gland and heart function improves. Due to these properties, flounder is recommended for the diet of children and weakened people.
