Brill is a type of flatfish that belongs to the turbot family, and its binomial name is Scophthalmus rhombus. It is found in the Mediterranean sea and also in the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea. Other places where you can find this particular fish is where there are offshore waters that are deep. This type of fish is rare to find and most people confuse them with turbot because they have a similar look. Just like other flatfish that are found in the European waters, these unique species are mostly targeted for business by commercial vessels.
How Do You Identify This Particular Fish?
Even though this type of fish is not easy to catch, you can easily be able to identify them because of their slender bodies that are covered in dark or light colored flecks. Furthermore, you also need to understand the fact that Scophthalmus rhombus does not have a specific color because they can switch color to match its surrounding.
This unique fish grows to an average size of forty centimeters to seventy centimeters in terms of length. Furthermore, apart from being longer that most flatfish, it also weights approximately three kilograms when it is fully grown, and some are known to weight more than three kilograms.
What Do They Eat?
These types of flatfish are known to hunt and scavenge for food. That means they eat small creatures and plants that are found in deep waters such as marine worms, prawns, and even crustaceans. Moreover, these species are also known to each lobster, invertebrates, and even crabs as well. Besides eating invertebrates, crabs, and even lobsters, they also feed on small fish when they are big in size.
When it comes to breeding, these species are known to spawn during summer and spring season. However, this process takes place in shallow water that is between ten meters and twenty meters above. The eggs of the flat fish usually float within the planktons until the time they hatch. The eggs hatch and moved to the shallow waters and remain there for at least one year.
Even though this type of fish is rare to catch, there are various techniques and methods use to catch this flatfish. Boat anglers prefer fishing for this kind of fish during the spring season when the flatfish are breeding. That is because during this time, brill fish usually comes close of the sand making it easy to catch them.
