ABSTRACT
Flatfish belong to the order of Heterosomata; five species belonging to three families have been or are currently being evaluated for culture: plaice, Pleuronectes platessa; sole, Solea solea; and turbot, Scophthalmus maximus or Psetta maxima; and more recently halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus; and the Japanese flounder (hirame), Paralychthis olivaceus. The success of flatfish culture has been quite variable, i.e., the rearing of plaice has been discontinued, that of sole is very limited, while turbot culture is presently developing in Europe. Halibut culture seems promising in Scandinavia, but it is still just being developed, while hirame culture is expanding very rapidly in Japan. Unfortunately, nutritional experiments concerning the two latter-mentioned species are very scarce and quantitative nutritional recommendations are still lacking. Therefore most of the information presented in this review will be based on data for turbot, sole, and plaice.
