Horned creatures in the Baltic
Photos: Tiit Hunt
Translation: Liis
Short-horn sculpin; Short-spined sea scorpion; Bull rout Nolgus Myoxocephalus scorpius
In autumn the water in the sea is about 10 degrees and the air two or three degrees cooler during a day and night period. Many fishes come in autumn to feed in the shore waters with depths of a couple of meters; so Tiit got a short-horn culpin to pose in the aquarium on Sunday. When the weather is only even a little calmer the seaside is lined with fishermen and they learn to know such fishes, difficult to pry loose from the nets – otherwise they are all lumped as „bullheads“ …
The long-spined bullhead or sea scorpion (Taurulus bubalis), the four-horn sculpin (Myoxocephalus quadricornis) and the short-horn sculpin are all relatively similar fishes, large-eyed and large-headed; the last-mentioned is perhaps the most colourful of them. The short-horn sculpin is „horned“ on the nose, behind the eyes, and on the neck as well, generally with three pairs of blunt spines. The short body tapers steeply and its skin is not covered with scales but with rough little bone platelets above the lateral line. Pectoral or breast fins like fans, the other fins large and high. Individual specimens vary much in colour. The female’s belly is white, the male’s with pinkish-orange spots. Yellow, orange as well as brown colours on the speckled side fins and tail.
They live on the sea bottom, most abundantly at the Saaremaa-Hiiumaa coasts towards the Baltic and near deeper waters of the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga, preferring stony bottoms with sandy patches. Full-grown male fish remain smaller than the females and the female can become up to 40 centimetres in Estonian waters.
Preferred prey is the isopod Saduria entomon, it also feeds on Gammarus crustaceans, Baltic macoma (Macoma balthica), bristle worms, occasionally also eating algae. As an animal of prey it also hunts smaller fish
Sculpins and bullheads make a sound or „growl“. On detaching them from the net, when the fish is held in the hand it spreads the gill covers creating a low growling sound from the muscles that vibrate from the effort.
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