Genus Spratelloides

Spratelloides Bleeker, 1851

Diagnosis: small silvery fishes, elongate, cylindrical; belly rounded, without keel of scutes. Mouth terminal, jaws equal; branchiostegal rays 7. Dorsal fin origin before midpoint of body. Colour: back blue/green, flanks silvery. Size: to 7 cm, usually 4-6 cm.

Habitat: coastal pelagic, in upper part of water column; shoaling. Food: smaller elements of zooplankton. Reproduction: not known, presumably in surface waters.

Distribution: rare immigrant to eastern Mediterranean from Red Sea via Suez Canal (single recorded specimen from coast of Israel). Elsewhere, whole Indo-Pacific region, from Red Sea to Japan.

Species 4; in Clofnam area I (rare immigrant from Red Sea).

Recent revisions: Wongratana (MS, 1980).

Species of this genus in the program:
Spratelloides delicatulus

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