The sea bream belongs to the Sparidae family, the Perciformes order and the Actinopterygii class.
The Sparus aurata sea bream is a species of the Mediterranean Sea and one of the two main farmed species in the Mediterranean and Greek sea fish farms.
It is characterize by a tall and flat body, a tall and curved back, a thin tail stem, large comb scales, a dorsal fin with 11 hard and 13 soft spikes, a brown-black spot on the gill cover and a flat gold mark, its “brow”. Its mouth is slightly protruding. The species are carnivorous, but their teeth are adapted to crush the shells of shellfish, which are their favourite food.
Its natural environment is often brackish and sea waters, in regions with sea fields, individually, or at small schools. We find it in the east shores of the Atlantic Ocean, from the United Kingdom to Senegal. It is a very common species in the Mediterranean. It is more rarely seen in the Black Sea, but it does not reproduce there.
The largest sea bream that has been fished, had a total length of 79cm and weighted 17.2 kg. Its life time has not been determined, the oldest one that has been reported was 11 years old.
The sea bream is a species characterized by fast growth, resistant to the changes in the biochemical parameters of the farm water and an excellent quality of meat, which are the factors that contribute to the financial interest of its farming.
The sea bass belongs to the Perciformes order and the Actinopterygii class.
The scientific name of the sea brass is dicentrarchus labrax, it is a member of the Moronidae family, which is distributed in the Atlantic ocean and all the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Its geographical distribution shows that it is determined by the behavioural characteristics, its feeding behaviour and its reproduction instinct.
It is found in a large range of temperatures and salt concentrations. The sea bass is evenly distributed in sand, rock, and seaweed covered sea floors, and more rarely in muddy areas.
They prefer less calm waters, because intense feeding activity appears to coincide with bad weather conditions. During their sexual maturation and spawning, the sea bass show preference to temperature of 10-12.5°C, in regions with unsaturated oxygen levels.
The sea bass feeds mainly on crustaceans, decapods, gastropods, askelminthes, worms and certain teleosteus. The generally hunt in schools, however, if the prey is on the sea floor, the school spreads out and grazes head-down, along the undergrowth. The fry develops by changing it nutrition from plankton to larger prey, for example copepoda, crustaceans and mysidae.