Orange Sea Perch

Facts about the Orange Sea Perch, it is fairly a big deep-sea fish that belongs to the genus Hoplostethus of the Trachichthyidae family. The binomial name of this fish is Hoplostethus atlanticus, and it is also called as Red Roughy, Orange Roughy, Deep Sea Perch, or Slimehead. The Orange Sea Perch has been categorized as vulnerable to use by the Marine Conservation Society. The Orange Sea Perch is distinguished for its strange lifespan, and it is a vital fish to commercial deep-probe fisheries.

Features

The Orange Sea Perch is the biggest recognized deep sea species, with a maximum body length of 30 inches (75 cm), excluding its tail, with a maximum body mass of 15 lbs (7 kg) (15 lbs). The fish is, in fact, has a brilliant, brick-red color body, but this body color will fade after its death.

The Orange Sea Perch is not an upright slender fish. The Orange Sea Perch's round head with big eyes is pierced with mucous canals, as is typical of deep sea fish. Its single dorsal fin holds four to six spines and 15 to 19 pliable rays, whereas its anal fin includes three spines and 10 to 12 pliable rays. The ventral scutes of the Orange Sea Perch that are 19 to 25 in numbers shape a firm, bony median edge between its anus and pelvic fins.

Each pectoral fin of the Orange Sea Perch holds 15 to 18 soft rays, and its pelvic fins are thoracic and include one spinal column and six soft rays and its caudal fin is divided. The inside of its mouth and gill opening is bluish black in color, and it has a big mouth and it is strongly oblique. The scales of this Orange Sea Perch species are adherent, and the lateral line is continuous, with 28 to 32 scales whose ctenii mostly obscure the pores of the lateral line..

The Orange Sea Perch is usually found in an environment with the temperature, ranging from 37 degrees Fahrenheit to 48 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Centigrade to 9 degrees Centigrade), at a depth that ranges from 590 feet to 5,910 feet (180 meters to 1,800 meters) in the waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean, ranging from Iceland to Morocco, and from Namibia Walvis Bay to Durban, South Africa, Indo-Pacific off Australia and New Zealand, Western Pacific Ocean and in the Eastern Pacific off Chile.

Similar to other deep sea fish species, the Orange Sea Perch grows slowly and matures lately, causing an extremely low resilience. Orange Sea Perches are very vulnerable to over-fishing, so due to this, several stocks, particularly those in Australia and New Zealand have by now crashed. The flesh of this fish is firm with a gentle taste and it is marketed skinned and filleted, frozen or fresh.

As the Orange Sea Perch is a deep-sea species, these species are particularly responsive to approaching objects. They migrate several hundred miles between localized feeding and spawning areas every year and form great spawning aggregations. Spawning in these fish species can last for a maximum period of 2 to 3 weeks and it commences in June or July. The maximum time between the egg fertilization and hatching is considered to be 10 to 20 days.

Diet

The Orange Sea Perch feeds mostly on zooplankton, like mysid shrimp, benthopelagic and mesopelagic fish, euphausiids, amphipods, and other crustaceans. Matured fish feed on smaller fish and squid, as well.

The Orange Sea Perch is famous for its long lifespan and it is capable of living for a maximum age of 149 years.