Sarpa, Or Salpa (Sarpa Salpa)

Sarpa, Or Salpa (Sarpa Salpa)
Sarpa, Or Salpa (Sarpa Salpa)

Video: Sarpa, Or Salpa (Sarpa Salpa)

Video: Sarpa, Or Salpa (Sarpa Salpa)
Video: Sarpa Salpa - As Good As It Gets (Official Video) 2024, March
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Salpa, or sarpa (Dreamfish, Salema, Salema porgy, Cow bream) is a large fish, reaching up to 60 cm. Marine bottom shelf fish entering brackish waters, estuaries and river mouths. Often gathers in large flocks. It spawns in two portions: in spring and autumn. Proterandric hermaphrodite - some males become females with age. Fish become sexually mature at a length of 18-20 cm. It is herbivorous, but it can also feed on animal food.

Sarpa, or salpa (Sarpa salpa), photo photography marine fish
Sarpa, or salpa (Sarpa salpa), photo photography marine fish

Appearance: eyes small, less than snout length. The interorbital space is not covered with scales. The body of the salpa is moderately high, laterally compressed, the maximum height is 3.5-3.6 times in length. There are 5 rows of scales on the cheeks between the preorbital and preopercular bones. 4 pyloric appendages. Teeth on the upper jaw with a notch in the middle dividing the incisal edge into 2 denticles; mandibular teeth with a pointed triangular apex and a depression outside at the base. The dorsal fin has 11-12 strong spines.

Common blend (Parablennius sanguinolentus)
Common blend (Parablennius sanguinolentus)

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Color: the back is gray-bluish, the sides and belly are silvery-white, on the sides of the body there are 1-12 golden-orange longitudinal stripes, on the base of the pectoral fin there is a brown spot above.

Sizes: males - up to 15-30 cm, females 30-45 cm. The maximum size is 51 cm.

Sarpa, or salpa (Sarpa salpa), photo photograph sea fish
Sarpa, or salpa (Sarpa salpa), photo photograph sea fish

Salpa became widely known for its psychoactivity after several articles in 2006, when two men ate it in a Mediterranean restaurant and began to experience auditory and visual hallucinations. The hallucinations were reported to start a few minutes after ingestion of the fish and lasted about 36 hours. It is believed that fish feeding on certain types of algae or phytoplankton becomes hallucinogenic. The described effects are similar to those of indole tryptamine.

Distribution: lives in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of Spain and Portugal, in the waters of the Azores, in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, Marmara and Black Seas, off the western coast of Africa, from the Tangier region to the Cape of Good Hope, including the waters of the Madeira Islands, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde; in the Indian Ocean, from southern Mozambique to southern Africa.

Biology: Salpa is a sea bottom shelf fish that enters brackish waters, estuaries and river mouths. In the sea, it lives at a depth of 150 m above a rocky with thickets, sandy, sandy-silty and silty bottom, usually no deeper than 20 m. Often gathers in large flocks.

Sarpa, or salpa (Sarpa salpa), photo photograph of fish
Sarpa, or salpa (Sarpa salpa), photo photograph of fish

It spawns in two portions: in spring and autumn. In the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of France, the spawning season lasts from March to May, off the coast of Tunisia - from September to November, off the western coast of Africa, in the Cape Blanc region - from December to March. Spawning off the northwestern coast of Africa occurs at depths of 130-140 m. Sarpa is a protrandric hermaphrodite - some of its males become females with age. The diameter of spawned eggs is about 1.0 mm. Fish become sexually mature at a length of 18-20 cm.

Food: sarpa is herbivorous, but it can also eat animal food - fish, shellfish.

Economic significance: a relatively rare species, it has no economic significance in the Black Sea. Table fish; usually fresh.

Literature:

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

2. Commercial fish of Russia. In two volumes / ed. O. F. Gritsenko, A. N. Kotlyar and B. N. Kotenev. M.: publishing house VNIRO. 2006. - 1280 s. (Volume 2 - 624 p.).

3. Vasilyeva E. D. Fish of the Black Sea. Keys to marine, brackish, euryhaline and anadromous species with color illustrations collected by S. V. Bogorodsky. - M.: Publishing house VNIRO, 2007