Butterfish

• It survives for hours out of the water under a damp stone, breathing partly through its skin.
• The male and the female coil around the egg mass and take turns brooding it until it hatches.
• It is a key food for cormorants, herons and sea otters on the coasts of the North Atlantic.
• It survives out of the water. When the tide goes out it stays under a damp stone and breathes through its skin, which lets it hold on for hours until the sea returns.
• Its body is elongated and compressed, almost eel-like, covered in a thick mucus that gives it a slippery feel and keeps it from drying out — hence its English name, butterfish.
• It has between nine and fifteen dark spots edged in white along its dorsal fin, a pattern that helps identify it.
• The parents coil their bodies around the egg mass, laid in an empty shell or under a stone, and guard it until it hatches.
• It is an important prey of seabirds and larger fish on the rocky coasts of the North Atlantic.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat & environment

Under stones and algae in the intertidal and shallow subtidal of the North Atlantic

Sources consulted: FishBase (Froese & Pauly, eds.); Lista Roja de la UICN; Marine Life Information Network