European plaice European plaice The European plaice ("Pleuronectes platessa") is a commercially important flatfish. The geographical range of the European plaice is off all coasts from the Barents Sea to the Mediterranean, also in the Northeast Atlantic and off Greenland. In some locales such as the Irish Sea this species is considered fully exploited by commercial fishing. It is a common flatfish, occurring on the sandy and muddy bottoms of the European shelf, usually at depths between 10 and 50 m, where they tend to burrow in sediment during day time and remain stationary for long periods. They can be found at
Coral reef fish too late. The clown triggerfish has strong jaws for crushing and eating sea urchins, crustaceans and hard-shell molluscs. Its ventral (lower) surface has large, white spots on a dark background, and its dorsal (upper) surface has black spots on yellow. This is a form of countershading: from below, the white spots look like the lighted surface of the water above; and from above, the fish blends more with the coral reef below. The brightly painted yellow mouth may deter potential predators. Many reef fish species have evolved different feeding strategies accompanied by specialized mouths, jaws and teeth particularly suited to