Fish of the Pagellus genus of the Sparidae (sea breams or porgies) family of the superfamily Percoidea of the Percoidei suborder of the Perciformes order of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Common pandora. Photo by © Fabio Crocetta. naturamediterraneo.com)
Common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It inhabits the depths of up to 300 meters, usually – 20-100 meters. It prefers to swim close to the rocky, pebble, oozy and sandy bottom. It is a schooling species. The maximum recorded length is 60 cm, specimens up to 25 cm long are more common. The maximum weight is 3.2 kilograms. It feeds on invertebrates and small fish.
(Common pandora. Photo by © Lakko Marseille. marseille-sympa.com)
It is a permanent inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea.
Names of common pandora (Pagellus erythrinus) in other languages as follows:
Spalca e kuqe (Albanian), Мерджан (Merdzhan) (Bulgarian), Gewone zeebrasem (Dutch), Λυθρίνι (Lithrini) (Greek), Vardit metzuia (Hebrew), Breca (Spanish), Pagello fragolino (Italian), Rotbrasse (German), Morlesz szkarłatny (Polish), Bica (Portuguese), Sparid (Romanian), Красный пагель (Krasnyj pagelj) (Russian), Arbun (Serbian, Croatian), Ribon (Slovenian),Kirma mercan (Turkish), Pageot commun (French).