#flounders

That is the LEAST weird thing about larval flounders

Carangiformes. This order contains the aggressively predatory dolphinfishes, and remoras, which have a sucker-like dorsal fin that allows them to attach to a larger host animal.

Pleuronectiformes. This order is made up of flatfishes, wuch as the flounder and halibut.

Brought to you by a marine biologist and the other flatfish...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST!

No, it isn’t a meme or dance move. Lots of flatfish have been called “dab” for a long time. Where I live, we have a few fish called “dab”, but it’s mostly a fishermen’s nickname for the fish rather than the actual common name. When I worked as an observer in the Northeast US, almost all of the target fish had two names - what the fishermen called them and what the government agency I worked for called them, and I had to know both so I could communicate with both. Real fun LOL. Anyway, today’s dab is definitely from the North Pacific, but which one kind of threw me for a loop.

We just covered the other flatfish in the game, the olive flounder, yesterday. We talked about how flatfish develop, that they begin life like normal fish, with an eye on either side of the head before one of them migrates to the other side. The fish then spend their lives on their side, flat against the bottom. These are the fish of Order Pleuronectiformes. There are so many different species, and despite the fact that they all share this weird adaptation, they can be very diverse! 

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the Olive Flounder and the Dab face different ways in the Critterpedia, and they really do IRL! In fact, when it comes to flounders like these two, they are officially separated into “right-eye” and “left-eye” flounders. Of course, this all depends which eye migrates and causes the fish to lay on which side. Pretty incredible, right? 

There are a bunch of right-eye flounders of the North Pacific this could be. Looking at the AC Wiki, they suggest this may be the Longhead Dab, but like...look. ACNH really went out of their way to make these models as close to the real-life animals as possible. The dab of ACNH has a very short face and both eyes are tall and prominent on top of the animal’s right side. The dorsal fin’s origin is behind the head and the anal fin origin is behind that, with a separate pelvic fin (yes, haha, this is how to ID fish...all these details are super important when telling species apart!) The mouth is also very small with thick lips (compare this with the long, toothy mouth of the left-eye olive flounder yesterday!) Even still, lots of North Pacific right-eye flounders have these features, but I’m pretty certain the Alaska Plaice (Pleuronectes quadrituberculatus) is closest.

This animal is, of course, benthic, meaning it spends its life on the bottom. And although it’s a flounder species, it’s actually not often targeted by fishing operations in the regions it’s native, which include the Gulf of Alaska and the Sea of Japan. It is often taken as bycatch, which means it’s accidentally caught. It prefers northern, deep waters on the continental shelf, which explains why it’s available during the colder months. 

And that’s about it for flatfish! If you want to learn more about flatfish, feel free to ask! :D