Pholidae

Long-finned butterfish ( Pholis clemensi )

Pomfret ( Pholidae ) are a comprehensive family of 15 species of elongated eel-like marine fish from the group of relatives perch ( Percomorphaceae ). They live on the ocean floor, often hidden under rocks in the coastal waters of the northern Pacific and northern Atlantic. In Europe one finds the Atlantic butterfish ( Pholis gunnellus ) on the coasts of North and Baltic Sea, around Iceland and Norway south to the Bay of Biscay.

Features

The body of the butter fish is laterally flattened and is 8-46 inches long. Your almost over the entire body extending dorsal fin is supported from 75 to 100 rigid fin rays. The anal fin is only half as long and has one to three spines and 32-53 soft rays. Both fins extend to the rounded tail fin and have grown together with her. Due to the shorter in comparison to the body length anal fin, the butter fish well from occurring in the same habitat Sawback ( Stichaeidae ) can be distinguished. In contrast to these, the butter fish have no fleshy outgrowths or appendages on the head or on the body. You own a pair of nostrils. The eyes are close to the top of the head. The mouth is small and is steep, the teeth small and conical. The gill membranes are widely grown together under the throat. The number of Branchiostegalstrahlen is five or six. Pylorusschläuche missing. The body is slimy and covered with small, inconspicuous cycloid scales. The distance from the tip of the instrument up to the beginning of the anal fin is usually greater than the distance from the beginning of the anal fin to the beginning of the caudal fin in the butter fish. The pectoral fins are small or rudimentary. You have 7 to 17 fin rays. Pelvic fins are tiny with a fin spine and a soft beam. In Apodichthys and some individuals of Pholis fasciata they are missing, along with the pelvic girdle. The number of vertebrae is 80 to 107, the vertebral bodies are unbalanced. Ribs are missing. The lateral line is short or missing. For the individual bones of the skull are a constant number of lateral line pores characteristic: two nasals, two occipital, an interorbital, six postorbital, Suborbital six, five and four mandibular Präoperculare. The brownish, yellowish, reddish or green color of the butter fish, often patterned with spots or bands, it camouflages excellently in their habitat.

Way of life

Butter fish live as a loner on rocky substrates in the intertidal zone at low tide in rock pools, in the kelp forest or other macroalgae. They feed on small molluscs and crustaceans, especially of sea lice. The nest is guarded by the parents.

Inside systematics

There are fifteen species in three genera and two subfamilies:

• Subfamily Apodichthyinae, only the North Pacific, body color uniform. Genus Apodichthys Girard, 1854 Lattice butterfish ( Apodichthys flavidus ) Girard, 1854.
• Apodichthys fucorum Jordan & Gilbert, 1880.
• Apodichthys sanctaerosae ( Gilbert & Starks, 1897).

• Genus Pholis Scopoli, 1777 Long-finned butterfish ( Pholis clemensi ) Rosenblatt, 1964.
• Pholis crassispina ( Temminck & Schlegel, 1845).
• Pholis fangi (Wang & Wang, 1935).
• Pholis fasciata ( Bloch & Schneider, 1801).
• Atlantic butterfish ( Pholis gunnellus ) (Linnaeus, 1758).
• Crescent butterfish ( Pholis laeta ) ( Cope, 1873).
• Pholis nea Peden & Hughes, 1984.
• Pholis nebulosa ( Temminck & Schlegel, 1845).
• Jewelry - butterfish ( Pholis ornata ) ( Girard, 1854).
• Striped Butterfish ( Pholis picta ) ( Kner, 1868).
• Pholis schultzi Schultz, 1931.

• Rhodymenichthys dolichogaster ( Pallas, 1814).

Use

Butter fish have white solid, boneless lean meat and especially in America a popular food fish. The European butterfish is because of its small size of 15-30 cm without economic significance.

The often marketed in Germany under the trade name " butterfish " or " escolar " as smoked fish, as well as fresh or frozen food fish fillet are other, much larger, high-fat fish species. It is the Escolar ( Lepidocybium flavo ) and the fish oil ( Ruvettus pretiosus ) from the family of snake mackerel ( Gempylidae ). They originate as by-catch from the deep sea fishing off the South African and Southeast Asian coast. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment advises caution when consuming these fish, as in Australia consequential effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, headache and convulsions were observed, probably due to the difficult or impossible to digest wax esters, which account for 90 % of the oil or fat of these two fish species caused. After eating there may be an orange, oily stools. They are also noticed repeated by significant levels of mercury.