The common pandora (''Pagellus erythrinus'') is a

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

of the sea bream family,

Sparidae The Sparidae are a family of fish in the order Perciformes, commonly called sea breams and porgies. The sheepshead, scup, and red seabream are species in this family. Most sparids are deep-bodied compressed fish with a small mouth separated by a ...

. It is a popular food fish in Mediterranean countries, with delicate white flesh. It has a slim, oval

fusiform Fusiform means having a spindle-like shape that is wide in the middle and tapers at both ends. It is similar to the lemon-shape, but often implies a focal broadening of a structure that continues from one or both ends, such as an aneurysm on a ...

body, with a smallish mouth and scales covering its face. The eyes are smaller than those of ''

Pagellus bogaraveo The blackspot seabream (''Pagellus bogaraveo''), also known as the red seabream, is a marine ray-finned fish species in family Sparidae. It is widespread in the Eastern Atlantic from Norway to Mauritania, including Macaronesia and the weste ...

'' and ''

Pagellus acarne ''Pagellus acarne'' is a species of fish belonging to the family Sparidae The Sparidae are a family of fish in the order Perciformes, commonly called sea breams and porgies. The sheepshead, scup, and red seabream are species in this family. ...

''. It is silver in colour with a pink tinge, particularly on its back. A typical specimen measures 10–30 cm, but it can reach as much as 50 cm in length. The common pandora is a

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have ...

, spending the first two years of its life as a female, and the third year as a male. It is omnivorous, but mainly feeds on smaller fish and

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. As most fishes, the common pandora harbours a variety of

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

; for example, the nematode ''

Philometra filiformis ''Philometra'' is a genus of nematodes, which are parasites of marine and freshwater fishes. The genus was erected by Oronzio Gabriele Costa in 1845. Species in this genus are worldwide. They parasitize the body cavities, tissues and ovaries of ...

'' is a parasite of the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the bod ...

of this fish.

Distribution

The fish is found along the eastern shores of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

, from

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

, as well as the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. In terms of genetic diversity, there appears to be a high level of connectivity from the Atlantic through the Mediterranean.

References

* *

External links

* * Pagellus Fish of the East Atlantic Fish of the North Sea Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Marine fish of Europe Marine fauna of North Africa Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Perciformes-stub