Black seabream
Spondyliosoma cantharus
Special features
Outside the mating season, males and females look almost the same.
However, as soon as the breeding season begins, the males adorn themselves with a darker color.
Appearance
The body of Black seabream is laterally flattened and oval. It has a short snout with a relatively small mouth.
The males have a characteristic blue-purple spot between their eyes.
The animals are brown-gray with lighter and darker horizontal stripes and golden stripes.
These stripes are often difficult to see, making them look uniformly in color.
Natural enemies
Predatory fish, seabirds, and marine mammals, the eggs are eaten by crabs.
Dangerous/Venomous
The striped bream is neither dangerous nor venomous.
Sketch
1. Short snout, small mouth
2. More or less continuous longitudinal lines
Pro tips
The Black seabream usually swims in groups across seagrass meadows and rocky or sandy grounds near the coast. It moves leisurely because it only has small fins.
It collects various small invertebrates and crabs from the ocean floor.
The younger animals live in shallow water and in up to 50m depth. But the best change to spot them is near seagrass meadows.
The older animals, on the other hand, swim up to 300m deep and stay there between rocks and cliffs in caves and crevices.
At the beginning of their life, all Black seabreams are female.
When they are 8 years old, they change their gender to male.
The males dig a crater in the ocean floor so that the females can lay their eggs in it.
Text: Carolina Leiter, Felician Hosp, Pia Balaka
Pic: Felician Hosp, Sabine Probst
Illustration: Dive Dict
