Cyclopterus lumpus

Lump fish ( Cyclopterus lumpus )

The lumpfish ( Cyclopterus lumpus ), also Lump, Lumpfisch, Lump - fish, is a plumper bottom fish from the same family of sea hares ( Cyclopteridae ) and thus belongs to the partial order of Gropp relatives ( Cottales ).

Features

The lumpfish are about 40 to 70 cm long and weigh 1.5 to 3 kg and the females are larger. They are dark gray - bluish to black, the females seem also slightly greenish. In some individuals, dark spots or black spots on the back and sides are available. Juveniles are dull olive green to ocher- yellow, with silver stripes and dots. Your body is plump and round, including tail two times as long as high. The body is filled with bone teeth, also run four thorns and bones three rows along the body and tail along, sea hares do not have scales. The mouth opening is located at the head tip, the teeth are relatively small, and the eyes and gill covers are relatively medium size. The short, upwardly concave and convex shaped bottom head is slightly formed larger in the male than in the female. The dorsal fins are covered with thick skin tissues and form the so-called comb. The anterior dorsal fin is 6 - to 8- rayed, the posterior and the anal fin each 9 - to 11 -beam. The caudal fin has a broad approach, and the tip is rectangular to slightly convex. The large, rounded pectoral fins are in the approach so wide that it almost to the throat, the males are larger than in the female. Instead of pelvic fins they have fleshy bumps surrounded six pairs of an almost circular fold of skin in diameter, a length of head size. This suction disc begins just behind the throat and is used to suction on the seabed, because they have no swim bladder. Thus, they are adapted to life near the ground.

Occurrence

Lumpfish come on rocky seabeds in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic in cooler water at depths 0-850 meters before. In the eastern Atlantic, their range from the Barents Sea reaches beyond the shores of Iceland and Greenland to Spain and includes the North Sea and the western Baltic Sea. In the western Atlantic, they live on the coast of Nunavut on the Hudson and James Bay, Labrador, Canada to New Jersey, rare south to the Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast of the USA and in Bermuda.

Diet and predators

The sea hares feed on small fish, crustaceans, molluscs and Ctenophora.

Since they are poor swimmers, they are a popular food source for seals.

Reproduction

During the spawning season, the belly of the male turn orange-red. To spawn, they swim in coastal waters, which are littered with seaweed. The females are about 140,000 sink large eggs in diameter 2.2 to 2.6 mm, which are rotated on stony ground in sponge-like formations continually by the current. While females move back into deeper waters, the males guard the initially pink, dull green or yellow later spawning until the 4 to 7.5 mm long larvae hatch. During this time, they take no food, so they emaciated and exhausted back into deeper water at the end of the guard.

Economics

The roe is colored black and brining, as " German caviar " marketed in Iceland as " Perles du Nord ", and is thus considered caviar substitutes of Störrogens. Each female can produce up to 700 lumpfish roe g.

The meat of the female is loose and gelatinous, therefore, not so desires. Fixed and pink on the other hand is the savory meat of the male. In the northern countries, it is smoked or salted offered. Fresh breaded and fried Seehasenfleisch tastes best. It is dried as a delicacy in Iceland.

Hunting and

To keep lumpfish in the aquarium, you need a pool of at least 500 l Since they occur at depths on the ground of at least 50 m, the attitude is rather reserved zoos for entertainment in the home aquarium the aquarist should have a bit of experience.