THE FLOUNDER - Pleuronectes flesus
The Flounder is a member of the right eyed flatfish family, and is distinguished from the rest by the prickly region that runs down the lateral line, and round the base of its dorsal and anal fins. It also has a straighter edge to its tail fin.
While most other family members is rounded. As with all flatfish the flounder has the ability to change its colour to blend in with the sea bed. Lying in the mud or sand bottom for most of the day in the estuaries, harbours and coastal waters were it lives. It then becomes more active at night moving in and out of the shallows with the movement of the tide, feeding as it goes. The flounder has the ability to live in both salt and fresh water, though the brackish water of the estuaries is preferred. During the winter the flounder will feed heavily before moving out to spawn.
In the spring flounders move out to the deeper waters to spawn here, the female will lay over half a million eggs. These will then float on the surface of the water hatching about a week later as round fish. The fry then move inshore to the safety of shallow water. Here they feed on microscopic plants and animals, before moving on to worms, soft shelled crabs and molluscs.
Then when the fish reaches about 2cm in length, a fantastic change takes place. The flounder’s body flattens and the left eye moves round the body to sit alongside the right eye. The dorsal fin grows forward along the edge of the head; the young flounder now swims on its left side on the bottom, and now looks like the fish that we know as the flounder
