Black croaker , or dark croaker , or melakopia [1] ( lat. Sciaena umbra ) is a species of ray-finned fish from the family of croaker (Sciaenidae). Distributed in the Atlantic Ocean .
| Black croaker |
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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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Sciaena umbra ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
| Security status |
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Close to vulnerableIUCN 3.1 Near Threatened : 198707 |
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Content
RangeDistributed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from the English Channel to Mauritania and Senegal , including the Canary Islands ; in the Mediterranean , Black and Azov Seas [2] .
DescriptionThe body is elongated, high, with a humpbacked back, somewhat compressed laterally, covered with fine ctenoid scales . On the head, cheeks and gill covers, cycloid scales. The snout is dull and rounded. The mouth is small, the lower one is horizontal, with small teeth. The chin tendril is absent. The dorsal fin is divided by a deep notch into the spiny (with 10–11 rays) and soft (with one spiny and 21–24 soft rays) parts. In the anal fin there are two spines and 6-8 soft rays. The second spine of the anal fin is strong. Caudal fin rounded or truncated. There are 50 scales in the lateral line [3] .
The color of the back is blue with violet and golden hues, the sides of the body are golden-silver with a copper tint, the belly is silver-white. Edges of soft part of dorsal fin and caudal fin with black border. The ventral and anal fins are black [4] .
It reaches a length of 70 cm (usually up to 40 cm) and a mass of 4 kg [4] [5] .
BiologySea coastal fish. They live at a depth of 20 to 180 m above rocky or sandy soils. More active at night, kept in small flocks.
They feed on small fish ( European anchovy , atherin , hamsa and crustaceans (small crabs , shrimps , amphipods , isopods [3] .
In the Black Sea spawn in May-August. Fertility is from 6 to 514 thousand eggs. Spawning portioned. Pelagic caviar, with a fat drop. Larvae 2.5–2.7 mm long hatch during the first day after fertilization of eggs. The yolk sac resolves four days after hatching of the larvae [3] .
Able to make sounds using the swimming bladder [6] .
Human InteractionBlack croaker has a small fishing value. In the 1990s, world catches ranged from 128 to 430 tons. Mostly caught Tunisia and Turkey . Fishery is carried out by gill nets, fixed and off-net seines [7] . A popular object of spearfishing.
Notes- ↑ Reshetnikov Yu.S. , Kotlyar A.N. , Russ T.S. , Shatunovsky M.I. The Bilingual Dictionary of Animal Names. Fish. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / edited by Acad. V. E. Sokolova . - M .: Rus. Yaz., 1989 .-- S. 288. - 12,500 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00237-0 .
- ↑ Sciaena umbra . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Svetovidov A.N. Fishes of the Black Sea. - M., L .: Nauka, 1964 .-- S. 266-269. - 550 s.
- ↑ 1 2 Vasilieva E. D. Fish of the Black Sea. Key to marine, brackish-water, euryhaline and migratory species with color illustrations collected by S. V. Bogorodsky. - M .: VNIRO, 2007 .-- S. 109. - 238 p. - 200 copies. - ISBN 978-5-85382-347-1 .
- ↑ Sciaena umbra in the FishBase database. (Retrieved January 19, 2018)
- ↑ Picciulin M., Bolgan M., Corò AB, Calcagno G., Malavasi S. Sound production by the Shi drum Umbrina cirrosa and comparison with the brown meagre Sciaena umbra: a passive acoustic monitoring perspective // Journal of Fish Biology. - 2016. - Vol. 88, No. 4 . - P. 1655-1660. - DOI : 10.1111 / jfb.12926 .
- ↑ 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. 723-724. - 624 p. - ISBN 5-85382-229-2 .
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