Olive flounder Coloring Pages

A flat sea fish

The Olive flounder is a fish that lives at the sandy or muddy bottom of the sea around Japan.
Its body is thin and flat, and it looks like an oval gold coin from above.
Big ones can grow to be over 1 meter long!
It is famous for sashimi and sushi. The winter Olive flounder is called "Kan-hirame" (cold Olive flounder) and is known to taste very good.

Both eyes are on the left side

The biggest secret of the Olive flounder is that both of its eyes are on the left side of its body.
Place it with its eyes facing up and its belly toward you. Its head will point to the left.
In Japan, people say "Left Olive flounder, right righteye flounder" to tell it apart from the similar righteye flounder.
Most righteye flounders have their eyes on the right side instead.
In the first coloring page, try pointing with your finger to find where the 2 eyes are!

Born as a normal fish shape

When baby Olive flounders are born, they have 1 eye on each side, just like a normal fish.
They grow while floating gently in the water. When they reach about 1 centimeter long, the right eye slowly moves over the top of the head to the left side.
By the time both eyes are on the left, they tilt their bodies flat and start living on the sea floor.
It is amazing that its eye positions change as the fish grows up!

Hiding in the sand to wait for prey

The Olive flounder often buries its body in the sand at the bottom of the sea, showing only its eyes.
It can also change its body color and pattern to match the sand around it.
When a small fish comes near, it jumps out from the sand and catches it with its big mouth and sharp teeth!
In the second coloring page, you can find an Olive flounder hiding in the sand, one pouncing on a sardine, and one relaxing quietly.

Let's find body secrets

Along the side of the Olive flounder's body, there is a line called the lateral line.
The lateral line helps it feel water currents and movement around it.
The Olive flounder's lateral line is special because it curves up high like a mountain above the chest fin.
Along the edges of its body, the dorsal fin and anal fin run long. It swims by waving these fins like waves.

The side with eyes matches the sand

The side of the Olive flounder with eyes is brown or dark brown.
If you mix dark brown and light brown a little bit, it will look super real!
You can leave the round spots on its body white, or try coloring them dark brown.
The body of an Olive flounder has both white dots and dark spots.

Color the fins along the lines

The back fin, bottom fin, and tail fin have many thin lines in a row.
Color along the lines, dark at the base and lighter toward the edges, to make the fins look nice and thin!
The fins are the same brown as the body, but adding a little yellow makes them look bright.
Leave the whites of the eyes plain, and color the pupils with a dark color.

Color the sandy ocean with bright colors

On the second page, try coloring the sandy bottom with light beige or cream color.
If you color the Olive flounder hiding in the sand similar to the sand, it will look like it is really hiding!
Color the water above light blue, and leave the rays of light white to make a bright, shallow sea.
For the school of sardines, color their backs blue and their bellies silvery white so they stand out from the Olive flounder.

Color the 3 Olive flounders differently

All 3 Olive flounders on the second page are doing different things!
For the Olive flounder jumping at the sardines, color the inside of its mouth light pink, and leave its sharp teeth white.
If you color the Olive flounder resting in the back a slightly lighter brown, it will look like it is far away!

The Belly Side is Pure White

The side of the Olive flounder without eyes—the side touching the sea floor—is pure white.
The top side looks like sand, and the bottom is white. The colors are totally different on each side of its body!
The side without eyes always faces the sand, so it does not need any color.

Where is the "Engawa"?

The sushi called "Engawa" comes from the base of the dorsal and anal fins along the edge of the Olive flounder's body.
It is the muscle used to move its fins, and it has a nice, chewy texture.
People say it got this name because it looks like an "engawa," the long wooden porch around a traditional Japanese house.

The Fish of Aomori Prefecture

The Olive flounder is the official "Prefectural Fish" of Aomori Prefecture.
Aomori catches a lot of Olive flounder!
When you see an Olive flounder at a fish market or sushi restaurant, secretly check which side its eyes are on!

You Can Tell It Apart from Righteye Flounders by Looking at Its Mouth

You can also tell an Olive flounder and a righteye flounder apart by the size of their mouths.
Olive flounder chase and eat small fish, so they have big mouths lined with sharp teeth.
Righteye flounders eat tiny bugs and shells in the sand, so their mouths are small.