Madeira Canary Islands Azores – Fishes Dr. Peter Wirtz

Imperial blackfish (Schedophilus ovalis)
Up to 1 m long. Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores. 0 – 500 m depth.
Adult animals live in deep water, usually below 70 m depth; juveniles (photo below) live in shallow water,
often near jellyfish, on which they feed. Photos Robert Minderlein (bottom right) and Peter Wirtz (below).
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Left-eye flounders (Bothidae)
Wide-eyed flounder (Bothus podas)
Up to 40 cm long. Madeira, Canary Islands, Azores. 3 – 300 m depth.
Left-eyed flounders are one of six flatfish families. Left-eyed flounders have both eyes on the left side of the
body. Soles (next page) have both eyes on the right side of the body.
Strangely, the sexes of the Wide-eyed flounder differ in the distance between the eyes: in males (upper photo)
the eyes are much more distant from each other than in females (lower photo). Nobody knows why this is so.
The territory of large males contains the territories of several females. The animals spawn at dawn during
summer (July to September). As “opportunists”, Wide-eyed flounders sometimes swim behind other species,
i.e. large starfish or digging mullets, and pick up prey that has been stirred up by them.
Like many other flatfish species, wide-eyed flounders can change their colour to resemble that of the bottom
on which they rest. Usually they are seen on sandy bottom, occasionally on gravel. Wide-eyed flounders reach
sexual maturity with an age of two years and a length of about 15 cm and can reach an age of up to six years.
Photos Peter Wirtz.
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