With a flat and unique body shape, it is a well-described name for tonguesole fish. Tonguesole is a very interesting fish species that not many people really know about. There are quite several cool facts about their appearance and their characteristics. Want to know more about them? Check out the 5 tonguesole species in Cambodia in the list below.
Bengal Tonguesole (ត្រីអណ្តាតឆ្កែ)
One of the nation’s favorite, Bengal tonguesole is a very common tonguesole species that people love to cook. The fish is around 12.5 to 20 centimeters long, and its flat body has soft dorsal rays all around. Its scaleless body is brown-gray on the eye side with darker marblings and whitish ventral. Cambodian people called it dog’s tongue fish because of the resemblance of the fish with a dog’s tongue. Here, we either deep fry them or dry them; it is delicious either way. This fish is found in the Indian Ocean, especially brackish water and muddy or sandy bottoms off the coasts. The range of Bengal tonguesole stretches from East Asia all the way to Southeast Asia.
Long Tongue Sole (ត្រីអណ្តាតខ្លា)
Looking very similar to the Bengal tonguesole but longer and more slender, the long tongue sole is also a marine fish. The fish’s elongated body reddish-brown in color with irregular brown-black patches with a large black blotch on the opercular region. There are two lateral lines on each eye side. It lives along the coast of the Malay Peninsula, Myanmar, Thailand, the Bay of Bengal, and the Philippines. This tonguesole species inhabits muddy and shallow sandy bottoms on the inner continental shelf, and they often enter estuaries.
River Tonguesole (ត្រីអណ្តាតឆ្កែប៉ារ៉ា)
A river tonguesole can reach a length of up to 25 centimeters, and it looks just like other tonguesoles out there. The unique thing about this tonguesole is that it has many blotches on its brown body that make it look different. While the previous two tonguesole species occur in estuaries and the seas, this one is from the river. You can only find them in Borneo, Cambodia, Laos, Sumatra, and Thailand, mostly in freshwater above the tidal zone.
Smallscale Tonguesole (ត្រីអណ្តាតឆ្កែវែង)
Despite the name, a smallscale tonguesole’s dark brown body can reach a length of 32.5 centimeters. The large size also makes it one of the most popular fishes in Cambodian cuisine as well. Just like the river tonguesole, this one also favors freshwater habitats instead of the estuaries. Their distribution is across Borneo, Cambodia, Sumatra, Thailand, and Vietnam waters; mostly rivers. Smallscale tonguesole is also quite common for Cambodian food due to its elongated body and larger size.
Speckled Tonguesole (ត្រីអណ្តាតឆ្កែភ្លាវ)
A speckled tonguesole can grow as long as 35 centimeters, and it has a yellow-brown body with irregular dark brown blotches. The blotches often form irregular cross bands that distinguish it from other tonguesole species. Another difference is that speckled tonguesoles have scales ctenoid on both sides of their bodies while some species don’t. As for this tonguesole species, it is indigenous to the Indo-West Pacific region including sandy or shallow muddy waters. They frequent the coasts of the Bay of Bengal, Burma, Cambodia, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and Thailand.
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