A flounder is not born flat. It hatches as an ordinary fish larva, symmetrical, an eye on each side, swimming upright in the plankton like everything else. Then it rebuilds itself. One eye migrates: it travels up over the top of the skull and around to the other side of the head, while the bones of the skull twist to let it through and the pigment drains out of one flank. The fish tips over onto its blind right side, drops to the bottom, and spends the rest of its life lying there with both eyes on the left.
After that it disappears. It works itself into sand with a shimmy of the fin margins until only the eyes are above the surface, and it can shift the mottling on its upper side to match the sediment around it. Most divers who swim over one never register that a fish was there.
It is small, up to fifteen centimeters, and it feeds by ambush on crustaceans, worms and other small bottom animals.
On a photograph the tail settles the identification: a pair of black blotches on the tail fin, one near each edge.
The genus. Engyprosopon Günther 1862 - engys (near) + prosopon (face or front). ETYFish
The species. Engyprosopon grandisquama (Temminck & Schlegel 1846) - grand (large) + squama (scaled). ETYFish
- grayish-brown mottled body with dark spots
- small dark spots on dorsal and anal fins
- pair of black blotches on caudal fin (3rd/4th rays from edges)
Why it's threatened
No major threats are known for this species. This is a relatively small-sized flatfish (up to 15 cm TL) that occurs in waters where trawling is conducted.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
