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Ground -gazer ( Selene vomer )

The floor gazer ( Selene vomer ), also known as horse head, horse head fish or bottom -gazer mackerel is a fish of the family Carangidae ( Carangidae ). He comes in the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic from the coast of New England states, possibly even before Nova Scotia, across the Caribbean, Bermuda and the Gulf of Mexico to Uruguay before. Around the Greater Antilles, it is rare.

Features

The ground -gazer has a very high-backed, laterally strongly flattened body and thus resembles the thread mackerel. It is characterized by its large head, with the very steep head profile and the far below its mouth. The eye is equidistant from the mouth and the upper edge of head. The first fin rays of dorsal and anal fin are greatly extended but not thread-like, but still connected to fin membrane. The pelvic fins are very small. Ground -gazers are 35 cm long usually, a maximum length of 47 cm was measured. The color is silvery, guanine dyes in the skin reflect the light, so that all sorts of iridescent reflections occur at the side of incident light.

• Fins formula: Dorsal IX/23, Anal III/18.

Way of life

The floor gazer lives in shallow water at depths of one to 60 meters above hard or sandy soils. Juveniles also go into estuaries. He lives in schools, small groups or in pairs and feeds on small crabs, shrimp, small fish and worms.