Lookdown Fish Paragraph and Drawing I did!

Lookdown Fish

The scientific name of the lookdown fish is Selene vomer. These fish live in the Western Atlantic from Maine to Florida and along coasts of Central and South America. They live near pilings and bridges, hard sandy bottoms, Estuarine areas, and they’re found in schools of fish. The domain is eukaryote, the kingdom is animalia, the phylum is chordata, and the class is osteichthyes. The order is perciformes, the family is carangidae, the genus is Selene, and the species is vomer. If you split this fish in half, the two sides would be equal meaning that the lookdown fish has bilateral symmetry. They are thin and flattened silver body and can grow up to one foot long. These fish have some super cool and interesting adaptations. For example, they have a strongly forked tail which helps them become more active and sustained swimmers. Also, lookdown fish have silver scales that help them reflect light. These are two structural adaptations. The last adaptation is a behavioral adaptation. This is when lookdown fish are under pressure or stressed, they make a grunting noise using mainly their teeth and bladder. This is a behavioral adaptation that scares predators away. An interesting fact about these fish is that their name is from the way that they appear to “look down” as they swim. The prey of the lookdown fish is small worms, fish, and crustaceans. The predators are humans are other sea animals like sharks and dolphins. They are heterotrophic organisms because they feed on other organisms and they are ectothermic which means that their body temperature fluctuates with the temperature of their environment. Two sources that I used for research of the lockdown fish are http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/12/fish and Lookdown - Chesapeake Bay Program By Hannah Pierce