''Zeugopterus regius'', Eckström's topknot or Bloch's topknot, is a small, left eyed

flatfish A flatfish is a member of the Ray-finned fish, ray-finned demersal fish Order (biology), suborder Pleuronectoidei, also called the Heterosomata. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through or around ...

in the

turbot The turbot ( ) ''Scophthalmus maximus'' is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a ...

family Scophthalmidae found in European waters.

Description

''Zeugopterus regius'' is a relatively broad bodied, left-eyed flatfish which has a small head with a deep notch to the front of the upper eye. The anal and dorsal fins continue on to the underside of the body, forming distinct lobes. It is pale brown in colour with irregular darker patches and a dark blotch towards the tail end. The maximum length of an adult fish is around .

Biology

''Zeugopterus regius'' is found over rocky substrates, less frequently on sandy seafloors. It feeds on invertebrates and small fish. The breeding season falls between February and August. It is sometimes found on the underside or rock overhangs but not as often as its cogener, the common topknot, '' Zeugopterus punctatus''.

Distribution

This is a fish of the eastern

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, occurring from the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and extending into the western

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1634412 Fish of Europe Scophthalmidae Fish described in 1788