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As this happens, one of the eyes begins to migrate across the head to join the other, making the
developing fry look more like the shape of fish it is about to become. Which eye, and to which side of
the head, depends on the species and to which of the two groups, Bothidae or Pleuronectidae, it belongs.
This is the process known as metamorphosis, which using the plaice as an example, is usually completed
inside of forty days, with a body length not greater than an inch.
Flatfishes such as plaice and turbot actually lie on a pre-elected side of their body, unlike skates and
rays which have flattened down onto their stomachs, with their mouth and anus on the un-pigmented
under-side.
True flatfishes are genetically pre-programmed to settle down on one or other side, though this can
sometimes go wrong, with left to right handed ratios in some Pacific species being quoted as high as
50%. Either way, both the mouth and the anus are sited on the peripheral edge of the body.
Plaice for example lie on their left side, whereas the turbot lies on its right. Whichever side the eyes end
up on should determine which side will be pigmented and which side will be white. The side of the
body chosen to lie on, known as the 'blind side', also determines how the internal organs arrange
themselves.
Pigmentation however isn't always confined to the eyed or top side, with some species more prone to
varying degrees of blind side pigmentation than others. In our corner of the north Atlantic for example,
it's not uncommon to see flounders either partially or even fully pigmented on the blind side. That said,
they are rarely fully patterned on both sides.
When complete ambicolouration
occurs, there are
often physical defects too, such
as in a fourteen pound turbot we
caught off Guernsey which had
developed a fleshy hook
between the eyes and the origin
of the dorsal fin, and with its
migrated eye not properly
positioned next to its partner on
top. Yet despite this, the fish had
grown on well and appeared
healthy enough.
Ambi-coloured flatfish. Note ‘hook’ above eye
Another colour variation
suffered very occasionally by all
species of flatfish is albinism,
which is a genetic condition in
which the entire body lacks
pigmentation.
Going back to reverse handedness where individual fish settle out on the 'wrong side' of the body
compared to the majority of their kin, from my experience in home waters, this is not too uncommon in
flounders.
I've yet to come across anyone who has caught a reversed flounder on rod and line. But back in the
1980's I did several trips out of Fleetwood aboard the trawler 'Biddy' skippered by Ben Bee, who would
trawl flounders to sell as pot bait from along the Lune slope when there was nothing much else about
to catch.
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