|
Way
of life
|
|
What it eats
The diet of the plaice consists mainly of
polychaetes, sand hoppers and thin-shelled mussels. During the winter
the plaice´s food consumption is reduced, but during the spring they
wander into shallower water to eat. The adult male is most active at night
and at this time, wanders into shallower water to eat.
Reproduction
The plaice mates during the winter. The areas
where they mate are quite widespread, the Swedish west coast, the Kattegat,
across the Great Belt in Denmark and in the Bornholm trench in the western
Baltic. Other areas include the Norwegian coast, the Barents Sea and southern
Iceland. The most important areas in the North Sea are outside the Belgian
and Dutch coasts, Helgoland, Fisher and the eastern coasts of England
and Scotland. Apart from these, there are areas where mating takes place
on a much smaller scale, such as around the Faeroe Islands. Mating takes
place at tempertures of about 6°C. In the western Baltic, mating
takes place at a depth of between 69-90 metres from November until June
and in the North Sea between 20-40 metres from January until June.
Saltwater is needed for successful
mating
For mating to be successful, salinity
must be at least 1-1.2%. At lower salt concentrations the eggs have a
tendency to sink to the bottom and fertilization is incomplete due to
among other things, the lack of oxygen. The female, depending on her size,
lays between 50000 and 520000 eggs. The eggs in western waters are about
1,6 mm in diameter, while in brackish water they swell up to about 2,1
mm. When the eggs are fertilized they became suspended in the water and
follow the currents.
After about 10-20 days the eggs hatch and the larvae
continue to live in a pelagic state. 1-2 months later, when they are about
10 mm long, they start their transformation to a bottom living fish. The
left eye wanders up over the head and the young start swimming on their
left side. When they reach 12-14 mm in length they abandon their pelagic
lifestyle and move to shallower coastal waters.
Misc.
The plaice is an important
consumer fish.
|
|
Sida
2 av 2
|
|
|
