#cyclopterus lumpus

[montereybayaquarium]

One lump(fish) or two? ☝️✌️🤔

Far below the ocean's waves, a bulbous-looking fish with leathery skin and large eyes slowly swims along. The appropriately named lumpfish live up to this magnificent moniker with their assortment of lumps, bumps, and ridges along their bodies. These denizens of the deep sea can attach themselves to surfaces using their modified pelvic fins like a suction cup to avoid being swept away in the ocean's currents.

Stuck on these bumpy lumpfish? Learn more

[fish-facing-forward]

Cyclopterus lumpus

Lumpfish

Image source

Status: Near threatened

Distribution: Widely distributed in the northern part of the Atlantic ocean along Canada, Greenland, Europe, in the Baltic Sea and the northern coast of Russia.

[animalworld]

LUMPSUCKER or LUMPFISH Cyclopterus lumpus ©Laura Quick

While I had hoped to see them swimming aimlessly around, the lumpfish, true to form were suitably, well, lumpy. They are kind of cute in their own way. This one, is bluish in color and lives at the Sea Life Trust Beluga Whale Sanctuary / Sæheimar Aquarium in Heimay, on the Vestmannaeyjar in Iceland.

Lumpfish generally have bodies that are ball-like. They have a knobbly, ridged back and three large bony tubercles on each flank. Their pelvic fins form suction discs which it uses to attach strongly to rocks or other surfaces. The head and the pectoral fins of males are larger than those of females. It has a jelly-like layer of fat under the skin. Its color is highly variable; bluish as this one, greyish in the link below, olive, yellowish or brownish. Mature males turn orange-reddish during the breeding season.

Other posts you might like:

Pacific Spiny Lumpfish

Grey Lumpfish

Lumpsucker

Pygmy Leatherjacket (not a Lumpfish - but cute)

[fish-facing-forward]

Cyclopterus lumpus

Lumpfish

Image source

Status: Near threatened

Distribution: Widely distributed in the northern part of the Atlantic ocean along Canada, Greenland, Europe, in the Baltic Sea and the northern coast of Russia.

[sunkentreasurecove]

[cool-critters]

Cyclopterus lumpus

Cyclopterus lumpus is a species of marine fish in the family Cyclopteridae (lumpsuckers). It is found in the North Atlantic and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean, ranging as far south as Chesapeake Bay (rare south of New Jersey) on the North American coast and Spain on the European coast. Males typically reach 30–40 cm in length and the larger females rarely surpass 50 cm in length and 5 kg in weight.After hatching, lumpfish will spend their first few months in tidal pools, or in association with floating seaweed clumps. As they grow they migrate out into open water far from land where they live in the pelagic zone feeding upon gelatinous zooplankton, fish eggs and small crustaceans.

photo credits: Jiel

[astronomy-to-zoology]

Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus)

...is a species of lumpsucker endemic to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This lumpsucker is often found on the bottom attacked to rocks and other hard surfaces, using its modified pelvic fins as an adhesive disk. Lumpfish is an important food item in Scandinavian fishing industry as it is both made into a roe and a caviar.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Actinopterygii-Scorapaeniformes-Cyclopteridae-Cyclopterus-lumpus

Image Source(s)