flounder / plaice hybridise. the proof

i've always wondered about this as we've caught loads of spotty orange flounder in the past and thought they must be breeding in the same areas. a few fishing buddies have been locked in discussions about it in the past with some saying the notion of them hybridising was total nonsence where as others said it should be plauseable. stumbled over this last night on another site.
read the "identifying flounder" description http://www.gofishing.co.uk/Sea-Angler/Section/how-to/Sea-Fishing-Advice/Fish-Species/British-Sea-Fish-Species/Flounder/

interesting reading that

I dont think thats actual proof, There is nothing in there to back it up. I still dont beleive they interbreed.

i agree with keith

Other fish interbreed so i dont see why flounder and plaice wouldnt. Im not sure about thier spawning patterns and if they are similar, interesting to know. Maybe one of our members will fill us in. (Im thinking of you Mr. Eric Gasparro)

Seems to be a few references in papers here if people want to read through them
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=flo ... as_sdtp=on

Other fish interbreed so i dont see why flounder and plaice wouldnt. Im not sure about thier spawning patterns and if they are similar, interesting to know. Maybe one of our members will fill us in. (Im thinking of you Mr. Eric Gasparro)

Roach/rudd/Bream never heard of a sea fish interbreeding could be wrong though?

Them articles JD linked to are well worth a read, seems Turbot and Brill have been found to interbreed also. I think it must have somthing to do with similarity of species and similar spawning patterns.

Seems to be a few references in papers here if people want to read through them

Plenty of scientific evidence there that plaice-flounder hybrids exist.
That might explain a flat fish I caught a couple of weeks ago - it looked very like one of those orange spotty flounder except it lateral line was totally smooth, see: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26656

im sure they have to interbreed to insure there species survive it must be 10yrs since i caught a plaice used to be large amounts of them on kilcoole and in shankill not there any more

If I remember correctly, when populations are under pressure there is a greater tendency for hybridisation (you do the best you can!).

This was noted in relation to shad

http://www.npws.ie/en/media/Media,4585,en.pdf

Since completion of the present study, a further two shad were presented for examination
by commercial netsmen on the Slaney. One of these was a partly spent female twaite shad
taken in mid June. The second, on initial examination of gill rakers appeared to be an allis
shad. This was a relatively small male fish, almost ripe, and was taken in mid May. This
fish had a gill raker count of 78, suggesting it was a hybrid. The occurrence of such
hybrids is a source of concern in regard to the conservation status of both species of shad in the Slaney

some really good reading there jd, spose it stands to reason that if the plaice and flounder are breeding in the same area at the same time, some hybridising would occur. just by the sheer volume of eggs and seamen present in a concentrated area. and when you take into consideration that just one female flounder lays between 500,000 and 2 million eggs some hybridisation is going to happen.
great links jd, thanks.

OK so most of the research seems to say they do hybridize although apparently Plaice and flounder share a sequence identity of 97 % and in the cases beleived to be hybrids they carry more of the characteristics of the flounder, So these "hybrids" can be loosely Identified as flounders with red spots .

Wheres Eric

Wheres Eric

Working