''Neosalangichthys ishikawae'', the Ishikawa icefish, is a species of

Salangidae Salangidae, the icefishes or noodlefishes, are a family of small osmeriform fish, related to the smelts. They are found in Eastern Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East in the north to Vietnam in the south, with the highest species richness in ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to marine waters near the coast in northern

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

.Senta, T., I. Kinoshita, and T. Kitamura (1986). Larval Ishikawa Icefish, Salangichthys ishikawae from Surf Zones of Central Honshu, Japan. Bull. Fac. Fish. Nagasaki Univ. 59: 29–35. Originally placed in the genus ''

Salangichthys ''Salangichthys microdon'', the Japanese icefish, is a species of icefish found in Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. With the recent removal of '' S. ishikawae'' to the genus ''Neosalangichthys'' this species is the only remaining member ...

'', the species was assigned in 2012 to the monotypic genus ''Neosalangichthys''.Fu, C., Guo, J., Xia, R., Li, J. & Lei, G. (2012): A multilocus phylogeny of Asian noodlefishes Salangidae (Teleostei: Osmeriformes) with a revised classification of the family. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 62 (3): 848-855. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2011.11.031'' Adults stay in relatively shallow open marine waters, but larve and immatures typically stay off beaches, often in the

surf zone As ocean surface waves approach shore, they get taller and break, forming the foamy, bubbly surface called ''surf''. The region of breaking waves defines the surf zone, or breaker zone. After breaking in the surf zone, the waves (now reduced in ...

, in waters that range from marine to

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

. Unlike the more widespread '' S. microdon'' with which it often occurs, ''N. ishikawae'' does not occur in fresh water. This species reaches up to in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

, and six adult females with eggs had a total length of . Despite the small size, both this species and ''S. microdon'' are caught in

commercial fisheries Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

References

Salangidae Monotypic fish genera Fish of Japan Endemic fauna of Japan Fish described in 1913 {{Osmeriformes-stub