Living in the Baltic Sea

Color
The color of the upper side where the eyes are placed is usually adjusted to the color of the environment, i.e. sand colored, olive, dark brown with light or dark spots. The other side is white, occasionally with dark spots.
Average size
50 cm/2-4kg
Males are smaller than the females.
Age
3-5 years
Record size & age
75 cm/7 kg and 7 years old.
Habitat
A bottom dweller that prefers a muddy, sandy or graveled sea floor from shallow waters down to about 100 m depth. Young fry live in coastal waters and when the fish reach 12-30 mm they move to the sea floor. This coincides with their metamorphosis when they turn in to a regular flatfish.
Food
They eat small fish, crustaceans, molluscs by the sea floor.
Spawning
Age: The male are ready to spawn when they have a reach a size of ca 25 cm, and the female around 30-40 cm.
Season: March-August in pelagic waters. The eggs don't sink because they contain fat. They hatch after about 2 weeks and the fry are then about 4 mm long. At this time they eat small crustaceans and plankton.
Number of eggs: Up to 825 000

Human impact and Status
They are usually caught as a bi-catch but are edible, less appreciated, however, than the Turbot. Over fished in the Baltic Sea. CLOSE