The Black Sea sprat, ''Clupeonella cultriventris'', is a small

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

of the herring family,

Clupeidae Clupeidae is a family of ray-finned fishes, comprising, for instance, the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa, and menhadens. The clupeoids include many of the most important food fishes in the world, and are also commonly caught for productio ...

. It is found in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

and Sea of Azov and rivers of its basins:

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

Dnister The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and t ...

, Dnipro (Ukraine), Southern Bug,

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

, Kuban. It has white-grey flesh and silver-grey scales. A typical size is 10 cm (maximum 15 cm) The life span is of up to 5 years. The peak of its spawning is in April and it can be found in enormous shoals in sea-shores, filled all-round coastal shallows, moving quickly back in the sea at a depth of 6–30 metres. Used for food; it has around 12% fat in flesh. It is one of the most abundant fishes in the Sea of Azov. It is important prey for other fishes, particularly the

pikeperch ''Sander'' (formerly known as ''Stizostedion'') is a genus of predatory ray-finned fish in the family Percidae, which also includes the perches, ruffes, and darters. They are also known as "pike-perch" because of their resemblance to fish in th ...

. The Caspian tyulka ''Clupeonella caspia'' has been long considered a subspecies of ''C. cultriventris'', ''C. cultriventris caspia'', and a common name "Black and Caspian Sea sprat" was then applied to the whole.C. cultriventris (Nordmann,1840) - черноморско-каспийская тюлька
Позвоночные животные России. sevin.ru Black Sea sprat (Clupeonella cultriventris) - 1

Black Sea sprat (Clupeonella cultriventris) - 1

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q248482 Fish of the Black Sea Fish of Europe Clupeonella Fish described in 1840 Taxa named by Alexander von Nordmann

See also

References