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Dieren en planten

Fish   Flatfish   Sole   Flounder   Fish biology   Fish diseases   Marine fauna   The fauna coastal waters   Fauna in tidal areas   Fish   

Flounder

size:

up to 60 centimeters

weight:

up to 2.5 kilograms

color:

dark gray on the topside, white on the underside

age:

up to 7 years

food:

worms, crustaceans, shellfish

movement:

swims

enemies:

poeple, seals

reproduction:

sexual

  • Dut: Bot (Lovertje, Rivierschol, IJbot, But)
  • Lat: Platichthys flesus
  • Eng: Flounder
  • Ger: Flunder, Butt
  • Fren: Flet
  • Dan: Skrubbe (Flynder)
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Flounder, Ecomare

Flounder

Flounder is the only flatfish that migrates to freshwater without any problem. They have been found in the Rhine by Basel Switzerland. Their preference is to live in brackish waters. Should you find one flounder, you're bound to find more however they are so well camouflaged that they are difficult to discover. The eyes of this flatfish are usually on the right side but they are sometimes on the left.

  • Distribution
    Distribution of flounder, Ecomare

    Flounder spawn in salt water, but grow up in brackish water. They prefer living in brackish tidal waters and river mouths, but have no problem swimming upriver. In general, freshwater flounder migrate a year later to sea to reproduce than brackish water flounder.

  • Skin ulcers
    Skin ulcer in flounder, Ecomare

    Flounder often have ugly skin ulcers. For a long time, scientists thought that they were related to pollution. However, studies in 1998 show that the skin ulcers are most likely caused by damage from fisheries. Stress can also be a problem, when flounder are confronted with sudden transitions between fresh and salt water.

  • Flounder fisheries

    Flounder used to be affluent in the brackish Zuiderzee, where there was a profitable fishery for this fish. However after the causeway was built in 1932, the fisheries crashed. Nowadays, there are still flounder in the IJsselmeer (the former Zuiderzee), but these are smaller than their cousins in brackish and salt water.
    Flounder are not fished very much in the Netherlands anymore because they have an earthy taste. No more than 2 thousand tons are landed yearly in Dutch harbors. However, it is still a commercially interesting species in the Baltic Sea.