European Bass

The Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is a slow growing species of fish which can take many years to reach adulthood becoming fully mature at 4 to 8 years old. Once fully grown they can weigh as much as 10kg, that’s the weight of a car’s tire! They mainly reside out in the open ocean and while adult live a solitary live hunting down smaller fish. During the Summer they will travel to shallower waters by the coastline and then move back out to the ocean during the Winter months. Juvenile bass will group together to form schools and will remain in these waters and feed on invertebrates until they grow bigger.

You may see sea bass at the aquarium roll onto their sides and rub themselves against the sand. This is a natural behaviour called flashing. It is called this as someone looking down on the fish will suddenly see a flash of silver as the sea bass’s body catches the light as they do this. It is thought sea bass rub themselves son the sand either to disturb the sand while looking for hidden crustaceans or to remove dirt or parasites from their scales!