#pacifc

Today's fish of the day is the saddle carpetshark! 

The saddle carpetshark, also known by the scientific name Cirrhoscyllium japonicum, is a rare, and not well understood fish. Found in and around the Northwestern Pacific, this shark ranges from latitudes  35°North to 24°North, around Southwestern Japan, at a depth of 250-290 meters. The scientific name of this shark can be broken down into three pieces. Cirrhoscyllium can be broken into Latin cirrus, meaning curl or tendrel, referring to the barbs of the throat. The second part of Cirrhoscylliumis the greek skylion, which refers to a small shark. Japonicum simply means, found around or belonging to the country of Japan. Like many other of the carpet sharks in the Paracyllidae family, these fish are rather unknown. 

These sharks can grow up to a maximum size of 49cm, or 19inches. Despite their similar appearance, range, and depth preference as the Taiwan carpet shark, of which they are closely related, the saddle carpet shark has some glaring differences. Defined by the barbels found in the underside of the throat, and the nine distinct saddle marks along the side of the body. The saddle carpet shark spends very little of its time swimming, rather prefering to lay on the ocean floor, with tips of the barbels touching the sea bed. This is thought to possibly be these sharks waiting for prey, however we know almost nothing about their diet! It is likely that the saddle carpet shark, like the rest of its family, likely consumes small benthic fish and invertebrates. We know nothing of predators for this shark. 

 Like all other carpet sharks, the saddle carpetshark is oviparous. Meaning that the eggs are laid and hatched outside of the mother. Eggs are laid in batches of two, and then abandoned by the mother. After hatching it is thought these sharks mature early and grow quickly, able to breed within their first year of life. Maturity is achieved at a size of 44cm for females, and at 36-40cm for males, after which they will seek one another out. It is thought that after this these sharks will live only 3 years, although certain aquariums in the region contest this ,claiming in captivity these sharks can live longer. 

That's the saddle carpetshark everybody, I hope you enjoyed reading about them! 

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