Spotted catfish [1] ( lat. Anarhichas minor ) - marine fish of the catfish family of scorpion - shaped order. In many ways, it resembles an intermediate form between two of its relatives - striped and blue catfish .
| Spotted catfish |
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| Scientific classification |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
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| International scientific name |
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Anarhichas minor Γlafsson , 1772 |
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Content
The maximum body length is 180 cm, and the weight is 27.9 kg [2] .
The tubercle-shaped teeth of the spotted catfish are less developed than those of the striped. The opener teeth do not protrude back beyond the palatine rows.
The fry of this species on the body have wide black transverse stripes. When the fry come to life at the bottom, the stripes break up into separate spots; these spots are well separated from each other, and in bands are grouped far less clearly than in striped catfish.
The range of the spotted catfish approximately coincides with the range of the striped, but in the southern regions of the range it is less common than the striped catfish, and in the northern more often. On the coast of Norway, spotted catfish is found only north of Bergen , it is extremely rare in the North Sea , but not in the Baltic Sea . In the Iceland region, one spotted catfish is caught per 20 striped. Along the Atlantic coast of North America , spotted catfish are extremely rare already near Massachusetts Bay, but they are found north along the western coast of Greenland until Thule .
Like other catfish, the spotted one lives on the mainland slope. It keeps at a greater depth than striped (up to 550 m), and avoids thickets of marine plants. In winter, it goes to a greater depth than in summer.
The diet of the spotted catfish resembles the diet of the striped, but it has more echinoderms (ofiur, starfish and sea urchins), and there are fewer mollusks.
The breeding season is in the summer. The clutch contains 12-50 thousand eggs (with a fish length of 87-120 cm). They are the same size as the eggs of the striped catfish and similarly stick together into the masonry, but these masonry are located at a greater depth (more than 100 m) than the masonry of the striped catfish. The fry lead a pelagic lifestyle.
Spotted catfish are hunted in the Barents Sea and Greenland. Her meat is considered no less tasty than that of striped. The skin of the spotted catfish has long been used as a material for various products - the top for light shoes, handbags, book bindings and so on. Today, this ancient craft is dying out due to the widespread use of cheap synthetic materials.
Spotted catfish on a postage stamp
- β Commercial fish of Russia. In two volumes / Ed. O.F. Gritsenko, A.N. Kotlyar and B.N. Kotenev. - M .: publishing house of VNIRO, 2006. - T. 2. - S. 769-770. - 624 p. - ISBN 5-85382-229-2 .
- β Spotted catfish (Eng.) In the FishBase database.
- Edited by professors N. A. Gladkov, A. V. Mikheev. Catfish family (Anarhichadidae) . - Animal Life: in 6 volumes. - M .: Education, 1970.
- Catfish // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
