Description: A medium-sized sparid fish. Body oval, elongate and laterally compressed. Dorsal fin single and continuous; the first two spines are very short, and young fish have the third and fourth spines of the dorsal fin very enlarged and filamentous, as well as the first soft ray of the pelvic fins. The dorsal profile of the head is convex in young fish, but adults have a large hump on the upper part of the head, which is more pronounced in males. Reddish with silvery reflections; the head is darker and the belly lighter. Has a little black spot at the end of the dorsal fin. The caudal fin is pink with a narrow black margin.
Growth type: Negative allometric (Torres et al. 2012).
von Bertallanfy growth parameters:
Reproduction:
Maturity: 34.7 cm
Behavioural ecology: Can be solitary or form small groups.
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 20 - 220 m.
Canary Islands (Brito et al. 2002): 2 - 214, more frequent between 100 - 150 m.
Habitat: Benthopelagic. Occurs on the shelf on rocky and rubble bottoms, as well as on sand around rocks. The young are close to shore while the adults occur offshore in the vicinity of the continental/insular slope.
Feeding habits: Feeds mainly on crustaceans, fish and cephalopods.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.1
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Commercial species.
Conservation status: Global: Not evaluated.
Europe: Least concern.
Nutritional information & food safety:
Proximate composition per 100 g:
energy value 94 kcal (4.7% DRV)
protein 20.45 g (40.9% DRV)
fat 0.74 g (1.1% DRV)
of which saturates 0.242 g (1.2% DRV)
omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids 0.390 g
REFERENCES
Brito A., Pascual P.J., Falcón J.M., Sancho A., González G. (2002). Peces de las islas Canarias. Catálogo comentado e ilustrado. Francisco Lemos Editor, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 418 pp.
Direcção Regional de Pescas, Madeira.
Fischer W., Bianchi G., Scott W.B., eds. (1981). FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Eastern Central Atlantic; fishing areas 34, 47 (in part). Canada Funds-in-Trust. Ottawa, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, by arrangement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 4, 316 pp.
González J., Hernández C., Marrero P., Rapp E. (2000). Peces de Canarias: GuÃa Submarina (5th edition). Francisco Lemus Editor, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias, Spain, 235 pp.
Hureau J.-C., ed. (1984-1985). Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO. Accessed through: Marine Species Identification Portal. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://species-identification.org (2014).
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
Nogueira N., Cordeiro N., Aveiro M.J. (2012). Chemical composition, fatty acids profile and cholesterol content of commercialized marine fishes captured in Northeastern Atlantic. Journal of Fisheries Sciences, 7(3): 271-286.
Torres M.A., Ramos F., Sobrino I. (2012). Length–weight relationships of 76 fish species from the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Spain). Fisheries Research, 127: 171-175.
