Clupeidae

Clupeidae
Temporal range: Early Eocene–Recent
[1]
Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Clupeiformes
Family: Clupeidae
G. Cuvier, 1817
Genera

See text

Clupeidae is the family of the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa and menhadens. It includes many of the most important food fishes in the world.

Description and biology

Clupeids are mostly marine forage fish, although a few species are found in freshwater. No species has scales on the head, and some are entirely scaleless. The lateral line is short or absent, and the teeth are unusually small where they are present at all. Clupeids typically feed on plankton, and range from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 75 centimetres (30 in) in length.[1]

Clupeids spawn huge numbers of eggs (up to 200,000 in some species) near the surface of the water. After hatching, the larvae live among the plankton until they develop a swim bladder and transform into adults. The adults typically live in large shoals.[2]

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Commercial species

Important commercial species include:

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Genera

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See also

List of fish families

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References

  1. ^ a b Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2008). "Clupeidae" in FishBase. December 2008 version.
  2. ^ Nelson, Gareth (1998). In Paxton, J.R. & Eschmeyer, W.N. Encyclopedia of Fishes. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 0-12-547665-5. 
True herrings
Herring buss
Atlantic herring
Other herrings
Misc herrings
Herring boats
As food
Related topics
Marine
Clupeidae
Other
Predator bluefin trevally sizing up schooling anchovies
Freshwater
Other
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Last modified on 28 February 2013, at 18:45