How to cook chimera fish. Is chimera fish edible? Natural enemies of chimeras

I once came across a wonderful fish in a fish store called a “ghost shark.” I wondered what kind of fish it was, how to cook it, beneficial properties which ones does it have? And I decided to take one specimen and try it. The fish turned out to be tasty, without nasty small bones, I fried it, and everyone appreciated its taste. Then I wanted to buy more. Yes, somehow I couldn’t find it in stores again. Let's find out what kind of fish this is, and how it can be cooked, what it is useful for - maybe you will come across it too. Buy it for your family to try.

Chimera or also “rabbit fish”, these are the names of these fish from the shark family that live in the ocean. The fish is deep-sea, reproduces by laying eggs, and feeds on crayfish and mollusks.
The most valuable thing is her liver. In ancient times, various skin ailments were treated with its help.

The fish can be boiled, fried, it is delicious in the oven cooked in sauce - tender meat, without bones. It is especially recommended to cook with vegetables and bake. Although I also liked the fried ghost shark. Simple and not troublesome, goes with any side dish.

Ingredients:

1 ghost shark carcass
2 tablespoons flour
Oil for frying

A completely simple way to cook delicious chimera shark:

Clean the fish, rinse, cut into pieces and add salt.

Heat oil in a frying pan, dip the fish on all sides in flour, and place in the pan. Fry, turn over. Place on a plate. Perfect fit rice porridge, mashed potatoes or buckwheat.

This fish is not one of the most popular sea creatures. It is quite rare and many, having heard the name, will not even understand what it is about. we're talking about. Let's try to eliminate this ignorance a little. Chimera fish belongs to the bottom and deep sea inhabitants depths of the sea. This applies to all its known varieties. It is distributed in all oceans and seas of the Southern and Northern hemispheres. Feeds on small fish, crustaceans, molluscs and starfish. It has a length of up to one and a half meters.

General information

The chimera fish, despite being clumsy and slow, is well suited for searching for prey on the seabed, such as shellfish. Some species of this underwater inhabitant are armed with a poisonous dorsal spine, which is an unexpected and real surprise for sharks and other predators who dare to attack it.

Let's find out what a chimera is.
The fish, the photo of which is in front of you, looks very funny, but that is until you learn about its poisonous weapon. How does she look for a tasty treat in the darkness, silt and algae? The chimera is superbly helped in this by its nose, which digs the bottom of the sea and has special receptors for searching. It lives and hunts mostly in shallow seas, but there are representatives who prefer to search for prey in deep waters.

Features of the Chimera

“Silver trumpet” is the name of the chimera in New Zealand, served fried and with chips. And “White fillet” is an Australian delicacy. Let's say you come across a chimera fish. Is it possible to eat it? The answer is simple - of course, you can.

Types of chimeras and their habitats

There are three main types of our fish:

The plow-headed chimera belongs to the family Callorhynchidae, lives in shallow coastal waters and, thanks to its sensitive, unusual shape, snout, successfully finds mollusks in the sandy bottom.
Blunt-nosed, belongs to the family Chimaeridae, lives in deeper and darker waters, up to 500 meters deep. Thanks to its super-sensitive eyes, a ghost shark is quickly and easily spotted starfish and other local inhabitants sea waters, suitable for eating.
The long-nosed chimera fish from the family Rhinochimaeridae lives at even greater depths and has a sensitive elongated snout, which is designed to search for mollusks where there is no light at all.

The chimera fish itself, as the photo confirms, is very beautiful, with silvery spotted sides.

Chimera fish: how to cook in the oven

People from the camp that decided that it is quite edible claim that dishes from sea rabbit very tasty. In addition, you can often see this delicacy on store shelves. There is one plus here - the creepy-looking chimera is sold already cleaned. So, at the end of our introductory article, we will tell you the recipe for preparing our fish with vegetables in the oven.

For this we will need the following ingredients: one sea rabbit carcass, one carrot, one onion, fish seasonings, salt, half a lemon and a few tablespoons of vegetable oil.

The process of preparing a chimera in the oven

Let's start cooking with vegetables, since they need to be stewed first. Peel the carrots and grate them on a coarse grater. Place the frying pan on the fire, pour a little vegetable oil and lay out the vegetable. Next, we peel it to taste much more tender than usual, cut it into half rings and also put it in the frying pan. Mix the vegetables, add salt, add a little water (a few tablespoons) and cover with a lid. Stirring from time to time, simmer until fully cooked. It's time to get your hands on the fish. We cut off the short fin on the carcass with scissors. After that, cut it into small pieces. Pour seasonings and salt into a small saucer, mix them and rub each piece of fish with this mixture.

It will marinate while our vegetables are stewing. As soon as the onions and carrots are ready, take a baking dish and transfer the vegetables into it. There is no need to pre-grease the baking sheet with oil. Next, place pieces of chimera fish on top of the vegetables and squeeze the juice of half a lemon onto it. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, place the mold in it, and after 20 minutes delicious dish ready. It should be served hot with a side dish of rice or mashed potatoes. Bon appetit!

CHIMERA, OR WHOLE-HEADED, FISH (HOLOCEPHALI)

Brief description. The soft, leathery operculum overlaps the gill slits; there are no splashes; cartilaginous skeleton; In adults, the skin is almost bare. The skull is autostylic in the nature of its articulation with the lower jaw. The upper jaw fuses and merges with the skull. Fins are built like sharks: first dorsal bears a thick front spine. The tail of some is unequally lobed, while in other forms (such as Hariotta) the tail lobes are almost equal, but the upper one is elongated into a long thin thread. The intestine has a spiral valve; equipped with an arterial cone. The swim bladder is missing.

External structure of chimaeras

The general body shape of true chimeras is similar to that of the body; The head compressed from the sides and the small mouth surrounded by lip-like folds attract attention.

The shape of the head varies greatly among representatives of different families: for example, in Chimaeridae the snout is blunt, in the family. Callorhynchidae, it is elongated and bears an original leathery protrusion hanging downwards, located at the end of the nose; finally, in the family Rhinochimeridae (p. Harriott a) the head in front is elongated and pointed.

Rice. Chimera (Chimaera monstrosa).

As noted, chimeras have only one external gill opening. This is due to the presence of a gill cover (operculum), extending from the hyoid arch and covering the real gill slits, which open into a single common chamber under the gill cover and are connected to the external environment through a secondary gill opening located in front of the shoulder girdle.

Rice. 2 .

1 - nasal capsule; 2-cartilaginous appendage; 3 - erectile appendage; 4 - opening for the exit of the ophthalmic nerves ny branches from the orbit; 5 -holes for entering the orbitorbital branch nerve V pair; 6 - auditory capsule; 7 - interorbital septum; 8 - Meckel's cartilage; 9 - teeth; 10 tooth cartilage; II, III, V, VII, IX and X foramina for the exit of cranial nerves.

Unpaired fins are represented by two dorsal fins, a small anal fin and a caudal fin. The shape of the heterocercal caudal fin is different in representatives of the three chimaera families. In young Callorhynchus, the fin rays are arranged symmetrically, forming a diphycercal fin.

U the male chimera is located somewhat in front of the ventral fins burnzontal fissure leading into a shallow glandular sac,from where an unpaired organ of unknown purpose can protrude into the formplate covered with spikes. In addition, the male has cartilaginousappendages (pterygopodia) used for copulation.

The cloaca is absent and the urogenital opening lies separately and behind the anus.

The chimera has a small frontal tentacle supported by thin cartilage.

Rice. 3. A-genitourinary organs of the male Callorhynchus (from the ventral side); the left testis is removed, the seminal sac on the same side is retracted; IN-incision through the anterior end of the seminal sac.

1-epididimis (testicular appendage); 2 - kidney; 3 - oviduct; 4 - opening of the oviduct into the body cavity; 5-opening of the oviduct into the cloaca area; 6 - anterior (genital) section of the kidney; 7-testis; 8 - seed sac; 9 - opening of the seminal sac into the urogenital sinus; 10-spermatophores.

The lateral line looks like an open furrow. It gives characteristic bends on the sides of the head; along the body the lateral line sometimes pokes in a straight linechannel, and in some species along a convoluted channel.

The spinal column is composed of a permanent chord with cartilaginous arches.

In chimeras, the shell of the notochord has rings impregnated with lime.

The skull (Fig. 2) is strongly compressed in the area in front of the large eye sockets. In the chimera, the eye sockets lie above the level of the cranial cavity and are divided between

a vertical partition made of fibrous tissue (Fig. 2, 7). The palatoquadrate cartilage is so small that it is completely invisible at first glance. It is represented by a triangular plate located on each side of the skull. This plate is directed downward and outward and bears an articular surface with the lower jaw. The palatoquadrate cartilage fuses with the skull and forms the only support for the lower jaw (autostylous connection). Occipital region,characteristically, it articulates with the spine with a single saddle-shaped surface (unlike sharks). The labial cartilages are very developed (Fig. 2). At p. The Callorhynchue snout is supported by three cartilaginous rods projecting from the nasal part of the skull; one of them represents the main basis for the snout itself, or rostrum.

The hyoid arch is similar to the gills, but is somewhat larger. The anterior dorsal fin is distinguished in that all its pterygiophores are fused into one plate. The remaining fins, as well as the shoulder girdle, are built according to the type characteristic of real shark fish. The right and left halves of the pelvic pox are separated from each other and are connected along the midline only by a ligament.

Digestive organs of chimeras

The structure of the teeth is extremely characteristic. They look like thickened plates with an irregular surface and a sharp cutting edge. In the upper jaw there is only one pair of small vomer teeth, and behind them a pair of large palatine teeth; in the lower jaw there is only one pair of maxillary teeth. These teeth are composed of vasodentine and each bear a rounded prominence (tritor) of very hard white.

The stomach is almost not separated, and the intestines stretch in a straight line from the esophagus to the anus. The intestine has a well-developed spiral valve.

Organschimera breathing

Chimeras have three pairs of complete gills and two semi-gills (hemibranchia): one on the posterior side of the hyoid, the other on the anterior section of the IV branchial arch. V gill arch

Brain structure. In the structure of the brain, noteworthy is the elongated shape of the olfactory lobes, which look like thin-boned tubes (pedunculus olfactorius), ending in flattened and bluntly rounded olfactory lobes. The fusiform hemispheres are small. The ventricle of the extremely elongated diencephalon and part of the ventricles of the forebrain are open from above and in the intact brain are covered by a large conical-tent with a vascular plexus (plexus chorioideus). The optic lobes of the midbrain are small; large, has a rounded elongated shape. The medulla oblongata forms lobes strongly projecting into the sides (corpora restiformia). The pineal gland looks like a small round vesicle on a hollow stem; consists of two lobes: cranial and extracranial. The optic nerves form a chiasm.

Genitourinary organs of chimeras

The buds (Fig. 3, A) have the appearance of lobed dark red bodies, bluntly rounded in front. The female genital organs are characterized by the enormous size of the shell glands and the uterine sections of the oviducts. The male organs are arranged in an extremely unique way. Large oval testes contain not fully mature seeds. These immature seminal cells enter through the efferent tubules into the appendages of the testes (epididymis; Fig. 3,1) where they are collected into spermatophores in the form of oval capsules, each of which is surrounded by a durable membrane. The lower end of the vas deferens is expanded into a cylindrical seed sac (Fig. 3, 8), divided by transverse partitions into a number of sequential chambers. The phora's sperm enters these chambers and passes into the urogenital sinus. Characteristically, the male has fairly well-developed homologues of the oviducts in the form of thin tubes that open into the urogenital sinus. The chimera has internal; reproduction occurs in different times year.

Each of the spies contains up to 100 eggs, but only one of them develops (for each ovary). Before laying elongated egg capsules, protected by thin corneas, the female carries them for some time attached to the excretory openings of the oviducts. Both capsules are deposited simultaneously. The capsule length reaches 150-170 mm. The smallest hatched fry are up to 108 mm long,

Rice. 4. Callorhynchus antarcticus eggshell opened to reveal embryo inside

1-external gills; 2 -valve, the worm from which the fish comes out;3-yolk sac.

At p. Callorhynohue's egg capule (Fig. 4) is larger than that of chimeras (up to 250 mm in length). Inside the capsule is an elongated chamber where the embryo is located. On the outside, the capsule is covered with thin yellowish hair-like appendages that communicate with the egg capsule external resemblance O seaweed(protective device).

Systematics and ecology of whole-headed chimaeras

The fish described are divided into three families. The first of them - true chimeras (Chimaeridae) - belongs to the chimera (Fig.), or water cat (Chimaera monstroea), up to 1 m long, whose elongated fusiform body ends with a tail extended into a terminal cord. It is a deep-sea fish (a fish found ondepths up to 1000 m. At such depths, the chimera stays in summer time, in winter it is found in higher layers of water, at a depth of 90-180 m. It feeds on deep-sea mollusks, echinoderms, crustaceans and small fish. Only one egg develops in each ovary at a time. Occasionally found in the western part of Murman (Varanger Fiord), off the coast of Norway, in the German Sea, off the coast of England and in the Bay of Biscay.

By seven. Callorhynchidae belongs to the peculiar Callorhynchus antarcticus, characterized by a skin appendage on the snout, probably a tactile organ when searching for bottom food. Egg capsule up to 250 mm long. Found in Antarctic seas.

By seven. Rhinochiraaeridae includes the North Atlantic Harriotta releighana, also found off the coast of Japan and found at a depth of 1,200 m; characterized by a long, narrowly elongated snout.

Chimeras have no commercial significance and are not eaten.

Article on the topic Chimera fish