Lyre Sea Mouse (Callionymus Lyra)

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Lyre Sea Mouse (Callionymus Lyra)
Lyre Sea Mouse (Callionymus Lyra)

Video: Lyre Sea Mouse (Callionymus Lyra)

Video: Lyre Sea Mouse (Callionymus Lyra)
Video: Galway Atlantaquaria, Dragonets Callionymus lyra 2024, March
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The lyre sea mouse is the largest and most numerous representative of the lyre family. It is nocturnal and usually lies buried in the sand during the day. Males grow faster than females and reach sexual maturity at 3-5 years of age. Spawning is accompanied by a courtship procedure. Fertilized eggs float to the surface. It feeds on small crustaceans and molluscs.

Lyre sea mouse (Callionymus lyra), photo photography sea fish
Lyre sea mouse (Callionymus lyra), photo photography sea fish

Appearance

The largest and most numerous representative of the lyre family. Huge lipped head with a long humped snout, similar to the head of a camel. The branchial openings are small. A spine of the preopercular bone with three teeth on top, two of which are directed upward and one backward, and with one spine directed forward and hidden in the skin at their base. The body is short, naked, in its upper part there is a lateral line, from which transverse branches extend up and down. The caudal peduncle is rounded in cross section.

The rays of the spiny dorsal fin in juveniles do not reach, slightly in females, in males they significantly extend beyond the beginning of the base of the soft dorsal fin, the 1st ray in females is shorter than the length of the head, in adult males it is strongly elongated, sometimes extending beyond the middle of the caudal, in 1.1- 2.5 times the length of the head. The rays of the soft dorsal fin are shorter than its base, the last ray in males is often elongated and extends beyond the beginning of the caudal fin, the 1st ray is 1.7-2.1 times in the length of the base, the last ray is 1-2.4 times.

Sea mouse (Callionymus pusillus)
Sea mouse (Callionymus pusillus)

Related article Sea mouse (Callionymus pusillus)

Caudal fin shorter than head length, 1.1-1.5 times contained in it. The anal papilla is strongly developed in males, hidden in females. The color is extremely varied. The upper part of the body in males is yellow with a reddish tint, with light blue or purple spots. On the sides of the body from the upper base of the pectoral fin to the caudal, there is a blue stripe and orange and blue stripes below.

Lyre sea mouse (Callionymus lyra), photo photograph sea fish
Lyre sea mouse (Callionymus lyra), photo photograph sea fish

Spiny dorsal dull lemon with reddish or purple stripes at the base, soft dorsal with four pale blue stripes, anal with a dark border along the apex, caudal lemon and bluish colors, upper part of the pectoralis reddish-brown with indistinct stripes, abdominal bluish-purple with few light spots at the base.

Color

Female lyre sea mice are dull brown, lighter on the sides and white underneath, with irregular, darker and lighter spots along the body above the lateral line and an irregular row of eight dark spots below it. The spiny dorsal fin is blue-black in the posterior part, soft bluish with a yellowish stripe in the middle, the caudal fin with three transverse stripes, the ventral fin is dark.

Dimensions

Length 15-25 cm, the largest size of males 24, met up to 30 cm, females 18.5, indicated up to 25 cm.

Spread

The northern part of the Mediterranean Sea, in Gibraltar, off the coast of Algeria, in the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, off the southern shores of Iceland, along the Atlantic coast of Europe from Norway to Mauritania, off the British Isles, the Azores and Madeira. Our sea mouse-lyre lives in the Black Sea.

Biology

The lyre mouse is nocturnal and usually lies buried in the sand during the day. Easily buried in the ground. Adults live mainly at depths of up to 400 m, at the bottom, they approach the shores for breeding, where immatures are usually observed. It prefers to swim among stones and on sand. Males grow faster than females and reach sexual maturity in the third or fifth year of life with a body length of 13-24 centimeters.

Lyre sea mouse (Callionymus lyra), photo photograph of fish
Lyre sea mouse (Callionymus lyra), photo photograph of fish

Reproduction

Spawning off the coast of Norway in November-December, Denmark in April-August, in the English Channel - in January-June. Spawning is accompanied by a courtship procedure. Fertilized small (0.7-0.9 mm in diameter) eggs float to the surface. About two weeks after spawning, floating larvae emerge from the eggs, sinking to the bottom by winter. The males probably die after spawning.

Nutrition

It feeds on small crustaceans and molluscs. Injections with a preopercular thorn and rays are painful.

Life span

Males live up to 5 years old (4+), females - up to 7 years old (6+).

Puberty

Males reach sexual maturity in the third, fourth and fifth years of life with a length of 130 to 240 mm and, apparently, die after spawning (Chang, 1951).

Economic value

The lyre sea mouse has no economic value.

Literature:

1. N. Svetovidov. Fish of the Black Sea. Moscow-Leningrad, 1965

2. Lebedev V. D., Spanovskaya V. D., Savvaitova K. A., Sokolov L. I., Tsepkin E. A. Fish of the USSR. Moscow, Thought, 1969

3. Vasilyeva E. D. Nature of Russia: the life of animals. Fish. - M.: Firm Publishing House ACT, 1999. - 640 p.

4. Wheeler A. Keys to fishes of marine and fresh waters of the North European basin. Per. from English. Preface and comments. V. P. Serebryakova. - M.: Light and food industry, 1982. - 432 p., Ill.

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