Atlantic wolffish

Striped catfish ( Anarhichas lupus)

The Striped catfish ( Anarhichas lupus) is a 1.25 to 1.5 meters long expectant marine fish in the North Sea, around the British Isles, in the Bay of Biscay, along the coast of Norway in the Barents Sea, in Iceland, in coast of southern Greenland and occurs in the western Atlantic from Labrador through Newfoundland to Cape Cod in Massachusetts. In the Baltic Sea it is to live up to Rügen and Bornholm.

Features

Characteristic of the type 10 to 15 dark stripes running downward from the dorsal fin on the elongated body. The Striped catfish is usually gray-green in color. But there are also reddish brown and black specimens. The dentition is very strong, the teeth to be replaced in the winter.

Way of life

The Striped wolffish lives solitary on the seabed in rocky habitats, rare on sandy or muddy bottoms, in depths of 20 to 500 meters. It feeds mainly on hard-shelled invertebrates such as mussels, sea urchins and crabs.

Striped wolffish spawn from October to January. The females lay up to 25,000 eggs, which have a diameter of 5 to 6 mm. The Eiballen lying on the ocean floor is guarded until hatching of the larvae after about two months by the male. The larvae are about an inch long at hatching and live another 3 to 4 months from their yolk sac. then they live pelagic to a length of 5 to 6 centimeters return to the soil life.

Use

The Striped catfish is a prized food fish, the fillets are fresh or frozen marketed as catfish, Karbonadenfisch or under the trade name loach. The fishermen go careful with him because he can still bite wild long after landing around. He is considered overfished.

Food

The striped catfish feed on sea urchins, mussels and crabs.