Arctoscopus japonicus
| Sailfin sandfish | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Suborder: | Trachinoidei |
| Family: | Trichodontidae |
| Genus: |
Arctoscopus Jordan and Evermann, 1896 |
| Species: | S. subligarius |
| Binomial name | |
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Arctoscopus japonicus (Steindachner, 1881) |
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Arctoscopus japonicus, the sailfin sandfish or Japanese sandfish, is a species of fish of the Perciformes (Perch-likes) order, Trichodontidae (sandfishes) family. Known in Japan as hatahata (ハタハタ, 鰰, 鱩, 燭魚?), it is a commercially important fish especially for Akita and Yamagata prefectures. Its habitat occurs in sandy-mud bottoms ranging from the Sea of Japan to the Okhotsk Sea.
As a food source, the fish has mostly been sourced locally from the coastal region of the Sea of Japan, and has been designated the official prefectural fish of Akita Prefecture The fish, which is scaleless, may be prepared whole as braised or grilled fish, and has a mucilagenous consistency. It is also dried to make ; salted, dried, and made into himono; and cured in miso as misozuke. It is the main ingredient of the fish sauce called shottsuru. The egg masses are known as burikko. In Korean the fish is called dorumuk.
The fish had also been used dried or in fish meal form as fertilizer, and shipped to agricultural areas at one time, into the 20th century.
Arctoscopus japonicus has a life span of 5 years, attaining a typical fork length of 20 centimetres (7.9 in). It is a deep sea fish that usually inhabits sandy and muddy sea floors in waters 200 to 400 meters (550 meters) deep, but migrates from November to January to spawn in shallow rocky beds of seaweed. The males reach sexual maturity at 1 1/2 years of age and beyond, and females at the 2-year-old stage; the individuals do not die after single spawning, and have several breeding cycles during their life span.
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