Manthal -Spiny Turbot Medium India

Country of Origin: India

Short Description:- The spiny turbots are a family, Psettodidae, of relatively large, primitive flatfish found in the tropical waters of the East Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. The family contains just three species, all in the same genus, Psettodes. The common name comes from the presence of spines in the dorsal and anal fins, which may indicate an evolutionary relationship with the Perciformes. They are less asymmetrical than other flatfish, although the region around the eyes is twisted. They reach lengths of 55–80 cm

The Indian Spiny Turbot, a predator fish, once abundantly available in the sea off Kerala and favored as a delicacy, could be heading for local extinction, according to researchers at the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala.

Growing to a maximum of 60 cm in length, and inhabiting the sandy and muddy bottoms of coastal waters up to a depth of 100 m, the Indian turbot is commercially the most valuable flatfish of India and is

distributed in the Indo-West Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa to Japan and Australia. The species occupies a higher position in the food chain than that of larger predatory fish communities such as sharks, rays, tunas, and billfishes.