Small red scorpionfish

Small scorpionfish ( Scorpaena notata )

The little dragon head ( Scorpaena notata ) is a fish of the family Scorpaenidae ( Scorpaenidae ). He lives in the Mediterranean ( rare in the Adriatic Sea), in the eastern Atlantic, from the Bay of Biscay to Senegal and the Canary Islands, the Azores and of Madeira. In the Black Sea subspecies Scorpaena notata afimbria lives.

Features

The little dragon head has a stocky, slightly high-backed body. Head and foot column are large, the eyes large and high lying. There is a small tentacle, which is shorter than the eye diameter above the eyes. On the chin he has, unlike many other scorpionfish no tentacles. The dorsal fin is long and has between the front and the rear hartstrahligen, soft-rayed part of an indentation. The color of the little dragon head is usually red or red-brown and more or less pied strong. In the rear part of the hartstrahligen part of the dorsal fin there is often a dark, reaching over several fin rays spot. The fish usually reach only a length of 15 centimeters, rarely they are 20, maximum to 24 inches long.

Way of life

The little dragon head prefers rocky habitats at depths of five to 700 meters, but holds also on sand and mud bottoms and in seagrass meadows. It feeds mainly on crustaceans. Small fish make up only 8% of its food. In the Mediterranean, they spawn in May. The eggs measure 0.88 x 0.76 mm, the just hatched larvae have a length of two millimeters.