Bigmouth sanddab
Encyclopedia
The bigmouth sanddab is a species of flatfish
Flatfish
The flatfish are an order of ray-finned fish, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through and around the head during development...

 in the large-tooth flounder family Paralichthyidae
Paralichthyidae
Large-tooth flounders are a family, Paralichthyidae, of flounders. They lie on the sea bed on their right side; both eyes are on the left side of the head, while the Pleuronectidae are the opposite with their eyes on the right side....

. It is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

, in tropical waters ranging from the Gulf of California
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...

 in the north to Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 in the south. It occurs in shallow waters off the coast, to a maximum depth of 36 metres (118.1 ft).

It is a demersal fish that inhabits the soft bottoms of trawling
Bottom trawling
Bottom trawling is trawling along the sea floor. It is also often referred to as "dragging".The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling...

 grounds and bays. It is commonly found in estuaries
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

 and can also venture into freshwater
Freshwater
Fresh water is naturally occurring water on the Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and...

.

Like the rest of the large-tooth flounders, it has both eyes on the left side of its head. It grows to a maximum length of 27 centimetres (10.6 in). The bigmouth sanddab is a predator, feeding on large benthic
Benthos
Benthos is the community of organisms which live on, in, or near the seabed, also known as the benthic zone. This community lives in or near marine sedimentary environments, from tidal pools along the foreshore, out to the continental shelf, and then down to the abyssal depths.Many organisms...

organisms and small fish. It is a commercial fish of minor importance.
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