The invention relates to an
assembly (10) for beheading slaughtered fish (11), comprising a trough conveyor (12) for a transverse axial conveying of the slaughtered fish (11)
abdomen-first in the transport direction T on a substantially horizontal transport plane E, a device (13) for securing and aligning the fish (11) in troughs (14) of the trough conveyor (12) before and during the beheading process, and a device (15) for completely separating the head (16) from the fish body (17). The trough conveyor (12) has a plurality of troughs (14), each of which is intended for receiving an individual fish (11), and each trough (14) comprises a head support (18) and a body support (19) at a distance to the head support (18). The trough conveyor (12) is associated with means (21), in the region of a gap (20) formed between each head support (18) and each body support (19), for positioning the fish (11) to be beheaded in the region of the root (22) of the pectoral fins (23), the device (13) for securing and aligning the fish (11) comprising at least one positioning element (24) which is designed and configured to be movable, perpendicularly to the transport plane E, downwards from above onto the fish (11)
lying on its side in the region of the head (16) in order to secure the fish (11) in the trough (14) and upwards again and, in order to align the fish (11) in the trough (14), transversely to the transport direction T in such a way that the secured fish (11) can be pressed within the trough (14) in the direction of the
tail against the means (21) for positioning the fish (11) to be beheaded in the region of the root (22) of the pectoral fins (23), the device (15) for separating the head (16) from the fish body (17) comprising a separating blade (25) which is situated, in the transport direction T, behind the means (21) for positioning the fish in the region of the gap (20) and is designed and configured to completely separate the head (16). The
assembly is characterized in that at least parts of each positioning element (24) are designed and configured to carry out a rotational movement about a
rotational axis D in addition to the up-and-down movement perpendicularly to the transport plane E and in addition to the transverse movement in the direction of the means (21) for positioning the fish, the
rotational axis being oriented substantially perpendicularly to the transport plane E. The invention further relates to a corresponding method.