Author: (Güldenstadt, 1772)
Stenodus leucichthys (Güldenstadt, 1772)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Stenodus leucichthys (Güldenstädt, 1772) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body moderately slender, head relatively small, snout not projecting; lower jaw long, tip projecting, hind end reaching back behind eye, upper jaw reaching to level of pupil; mouth almost toothless. Gillrakers (17, 18) 19-23 (24), usually 20-21. Dorsal finrays ii-v 10-13, anal finrays iii-iv (11) 12-16. Scales fairly small, 88-118 in lateral line. Vertebrae 67-71. Pyloric caeca very numerous, 99-239. Colour: back dark green to light brown, flanks silvery. Size: to 1.5 m and 40 kg, usually much less.
Habitat: coastal brackish waters near mouths of rivers, but usually in rivers or some land-locked lakes. Food: small fishes, usually small whitefishes; young feed on mysids, insects and fish fry. Reproduction: ascend rivers after break-up of ice, not in shoals; spawning usually in late September and October, in running water, mature at 9-15 years (depending on locality).
Distribution: rivers and coasts, and especially bays and river mouths around south-eastern Barents and White Seas. Elsewhere, rivers and coasts of Siberia to Alaska; nominate subspecies in Caspian Sea.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.
Subspecies
S. Ieucichthys nelma: Clofnam area, also Siberia to Alaska.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Vovk, 1948: 31, fig. 2-4 | Soin, 1956: 1364, fig. 1 (S) | Smolyanov, 1957: 260, fig. 12-18, 24.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.