''Neosalanx tangkahkeii'', the Chinese icefish or short-snout icefish, is a species of icefish

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 fresh and

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 ...

waters in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Despite its common name it is not the only icefish in China; the majority of the species in this family are found in the country. ''Neosalanx tangkahkeii'' is widely fished. In addition to being eaten in Asia, it is exported to southern Europe as a replacement of the more expensive

transparent goby ''Aphia minuta'', the transparent goby, is a species of the goby native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean where it can be found from Trondheim, Norway to Morocco. It is also found in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It is a pel ...

, a Mediterranean species used in the local cuisine. This replacement is often done openly, but sometimes it is done fraudulently.

Appearance

''Neosalanx tangkahkeii'' reached 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 ...

. They have a smooth, scale-less body, except the male has a thin line of scales at the tail base. The body is a white opaque color and the head is transparent.

Conservation status

''Neosalanx tangkahkeii'' is a widespread species and among others found in the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

and

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

basins. In some parts of its range it is a relatively low-density species and in a survey of the five freshwater icefish species in the Yangtze, it was the least widespread and frequent. In some regions it has declined due to habitat loss, pollution and

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

. Despite this the species is not considered threatened overall, being rated as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

As an introduced species

It is one of three icefish species (the others are '' N. pseudotaihuensis'' and ''

Protosalanx ''Protosalanx'' is a small genus of icefishes that are native to China, Korea and Vietnam where they primarily inhabit coastal waters and nearby fresh waters. They are commercially fished and used for aquaculture in China, where also introduced ...

'') that has been introduced to several parts of China where not naturally found. Most of these attempted introductions failed, but some were successful. In the

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

lakes some attempts were successful and ''N. tangkahkeii'' is now often the most common fish species in them. Feeding on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

ic crustaceans and tiny fish, ''N. tangkahkeii'' has outcompeted certain native fish in these lakes, which have become rare and threatened.

References

tangkahkeii Endemic fauna of China Fish of China Fish described in 1931 {{Osmeriformes-stub