Banded Gunnel: Pholis fasciata (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
The only species of gunnel in the Arctic Ocean
Size
- 30 cm
Color & Characteristics
- Bright reddish orange to greenish yellow with sinuous reddish black bands reaching the ventral surface, white blotches along the back and dorsal fin containing black spots
- An olive green band bordered with black from top of head through eye and down cheek followed by a white band with fine black border
- Body strongly compressed
- Head pores conspicuous; interorbital pore absent
- Pectoral fins small (less than 50% of head length), fan-shaped
- Pelvic fins tiny, occasionally absent
Habitat
- Arctic-boreal
- Benthic, on sand, broken shell, gravel, and rock substrate
- Shallow subtidal to 94 m, < 50 m in the Arctic and typically shallower than 20 m
- Near-bottom temperatures of 5°C (off Newfoundland) to 10.5°C (Bering Strait) reported
Feeding
- Eats small crustaceans
- Eaten by sculpins, cods (e.g., Gadus macrocephalus), other bottom fishes, and seabirds
Life cycle
- Not reported
- Presumably, like Pholis gunnellus, deposits eggs inside empty bivalve shells and guards them by coiling around the egg clump
Page Author: CW Mecklenburg & TA Mecklenburg
Updated: March 5, 2011
