Stargazer fish facts

This marine fish are scientifically classified as follows:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Actinopterygii
• Order: Perciformes
• Family: Uranoscopidae

Stargazer fish Description: Stargazer fish have a round, elongated body and dull brown color. The large head consists of bony plates and is slightly flattened vertically. The average size of the fish is 18-25cm.

The eyes are small and situated at the top of the body and its large mouth faces upwards. There is a small worm-like projection at the tip of its lower jaw. Stargazers are poisonous fish, due to two large poisonous spines on each pectoral fin. The spines also discharge electricity. They can poison and shock humans and particularly attack night divers.

Habitat: They are found in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean Sea and deeper Atlantic Ocean.

Diet: It feeds on other fish and invertebrates. They watch their prey from within the sand. They attract prey with their worm-like protrusion and then capture them.

Breeding: The fish breed in spring and summer. The small, transparent eggs are laid at the bottom of the ocean, then later hatch into larvae on the surface of the water, where they remain until they reach 12-15millimeters in length and swim to the bottom of the ocean and develop into mature stargazer fish.