Olive flounder
Amazing fact
Olive flounders have small spots on the side with eyes, while the eyeless side is pale.
東京都島しょ農林水産総合センター
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Olive flounders have small spots on the side with eyes, while the eyeless side is pale.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Olive flounder
- Scientific name
- Paralichthys olivaceus
- Japanese name
- ヒラメ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Pleuronectiformes
- Family
- Paralichthyidae
- Genus
- Paralichthys
A flat-bodied fish that lives on sandy seafloors. Both of its eyes are on the left side of its body.
When it hatches it has an eye on each side like other fish, but as it grows its right eye moves over to the left side.
It blends in with the seafloor and lies in wait, then catches fish such as sardines and jack mackerel that come close.
How the Olive flounder lives
Spawning starts earlier in more southerly seas. The tiny young eat animal plankton after hatching. As they grow, fish become a greater part of their diet. They live in shallow areas from early spring to early summer, and deeper areas from summer through winter.
東京都島しょ農林水産総合センターBasic data
- Size
- Body length: up to 70 cm
- Diet
- Sardines, horse mackerel, mackerel, and other fish
- Range
- Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Sea of Japan, Japanese coasts, and South China Sea
Where the Olive flounder has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ヒラメ
- 简体中文
- 褐牙鲆
- 繁體中文
- 褐牙鮃
- 한국어
- 넙치
- Français
- Cardeau hirame
- Português (Brasil)
- Falso-alabote-japonês
- العربية
- مفلطح زيتوني
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá bơn vỉ
- Русский
- Азиатский паралихт
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 東京都島しょ農林水産総合センター — ヒラメChecked: 2026-11-03
- 鳥羽水族館 — ヒラメChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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