Flatfishes - Righteye Flounders
Flatfishes have extremely flattened bodies with eyes on the upper, or eyed, side. The eyed side is pigmented and the lower, or blind, side typically is off-white or white. In righteye flounders the eyes and pigmentation are almost always on the right side. The family comprises about 95 species worldwide. It has representatives in all oceans, and is the only family of flatfishes occurring in the Arctic. About 12 species of righteye flounder inhabit the marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, and another 5 or 6 have their northern limits of range in seasonally ice-covered waters of the northern Bering Sea or North Atlantic.
Righteye flounders live on the bottom, usually in shallow marine waters, and burrow into the surface sediment to rest and wait for prey. They eat worms, molluscs, echinoderms, crustaceans, other benthic invertebrates, and fishes. Their eggs and larvae are pelagic or demersal. During transformation one eye migrates to the other side and the fish settles to the bottom.
Page Author: Kitty & Tony Mecklenburg
Updated: Feb 28, 2009
