Red Bandfish

• It digs vertical burrows up to a metre deep and spends its life moving in and out of them, almost never far from the entrance.
• Its body, as thin and flexible as a ribbon, tapers to a point, with no distinct tail fin.
• When trawling destroys its burrow fields, the species takes a long time to recolonise the area.
• It digs vertical burrows up to a metre deep, about 49 cm on average, and maintains them at dawn and dusk using its mouth and pushing the mud with its body.
• It rises vertically out of the burrow mouth, head upwards, to catch zooplankton, just as garden eels do, but unlike them it can leave and swim freely.
• It is regular prey for John Dory, and also for common dolphins and the musky octopus.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Muddy and sandy-mud bottoms, between 15 and 400 m

Sexual maturity

Length at first maturity 24.2 cm

Gestation / incubation

The eggs are pelagic and buoyant; they hatch into larvae that develop in the plankton before settling on the bottom

Litter / clutch size

Spawning runs from late spring to autumn.

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Cepola macrophthalma · Guias de fauna marina mediterranea · FishBase · Lista Roja UICN, evaluacion mediterranea de Cepola macrophthalma (Tortonese 1986) · Lista Roja UICN, evaluacion mediterranea · Estudio de edad, crecimiento y mortalidad de Cepola macrophthalma en el Adriatico oriental (2002-2003) · FishBase, Cepola macrophthalma · Atkinson & Pullin 1996, observaciones sobre las madrigueras del pez cinta roja

Best time: It lives on sand and mud bottoms of the continental shelf between 15 and 400 m, most often between 30 and 100 m; it can be seen hanging vertically, head up, at the mouth of its burrow, into which it withdraws in a flash at the slightest danger