I, Turbot Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scophthalmus maximus

Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus gave a number of different scientific names for turbot. All three of these were coined by him, and all are still used. Scophthalmus maximus is the only accepted name however. The name turbot is probably derived from the Latin "turbo" meaning spinning top. Please don't confuse me with a Greenland turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides), as it's really a halibut.

The halibut industry lobbied for a name change, so it wouldn't be confused with Pacific halibut. Unfortunately people now confuse it with true turbot.

Answer: Several thousand

It can be as many as 5 to 10 million. They spawn from April until August. The eggs contain a droplet of oil that make them rise to the surface where the water is warmer. It takes about two weeks to hatch, depending on the water temperature.

Answer: Vertically

Most young turbot larvae will spend about a year swimming in an upright position, eating mostly plankton. Mind you, when I was first born, my mouth was closed and I couldn't see until a few days after I hatched. My mouth formed properly and my eyes gained pigment from the egg yolk I still had with me.

As I finished up the food from my yolk, I gained a swim bladder which aided my buoyancy. It will take a further year for a male to mature, and two years for a female to mature. Some people suggest that the spines I grew as a larva used as storage sites for the bony material I needed to become adult. I lost my swim bladder when I became an adult.

Answer: 10 to 70 meters

I will live on sandy, rocky or mixed bottoms. I'll swallow up smaller fish, such as sand-eels and gobies, as well as shrimps. I can change colour to camouflage myself against different backgrounds. I am one of the few marine fish species that inhabit brackish waters, so sometimes I can feed in estuaries. I don't have any scales, although I am studded with tubercles, which are bony knobs.

Answer: North Sea

I can be found in coastal waters of Europe and northern Africa. Diamond turbot (Hypsopsetta guttulata) are found off the coast of California, but they are not a true turbot.

Turbot are farmed in some places like China and Chile where the eggs have been imported. Turbot farming started in the 1970s in Scotland. Turbot require fish-oil and fish meal in their diet, which means they need to eat more fish protein than they eventually provide.

Answer: Both on the left side of my body

Very occasionally turbot eyes are found on the right side, in which case they are called dextral, while left sided fish are called sinistral. Other flatfish species, such as the Greenland halibut, have their eyes on the right. As juveniles we are perfectly symmetrical, with an eye on either side of our body.

As our bones grow, our right eye is pushed to the other side. We gain cone photoreceptors in our larval form, rods appear as we become adult as our eye migrates. Both of our eyes perform in exactly the same way, even at a microscopic level.

Answer: Flat fish

There are over 500 species of flat fish, all having unusually flattened bodies that suits life at the bottom of the sea. Flatfish evolved during the Eocene period about 34-56 million years ago. Turbot fossils dating back 45 million years have been found. Incidentally, a turbot's genome is about a quarter the size of the human genome.

Answer: 100cm

We are usually 40 to 60cm long. We are one of the fastest growing fish, often reaching 30cm in length in the first three years. We can live to a ripe old age of 25 or more. The first mention of a turbot in literature is as part of a satirical poem by Juvenal at the end of the first century. The poem tells of a giant Adriatic turbot being caught and served to the Roman emperor.

Answer: Enteromyxum scophthalmi

Urgh, horrible things they are too. Thank goodness I'm Scottish as most of the outbreaks have been around northwestern Spain. It ruins the gut and gives severe catarrhal enteritis. I'm more likely to have a parasite from the genus Lepeophtheirus on me though. Giardia canis is common on dogs, Heterorhabditis is a parasite used to control insects, and Plasmodium pinotti infects birds in Jamaica.

Answer: 4

An eleven ounce fillet will give you 446 Calories as well as giving you 1.8 grams of potassium, but no fibre or carbohydrate. In 2012, the EU fisheries had a quota of 4,642 tons for turbot and brill combined, most of it from the Netherlands. One warning though, I have sharp teeth and I bite.