The slender rainbow sardine (''Dussumieria elopsoides'') is a small, subtropical, salt water fish of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

which was first described by

Bleeker Bleeker is a Dutch occupational surname. Bleeker is an old spelling of ''(linnen)bleker'' ("linen bleacher").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 production of ...

. Until the 1980s in the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

slender rainbow sardines were frequently confused with the

rainbow sardine The rainbow sardine (''Dussumieria acuta''), also known as common sprat, dwarf round herring, rainbow herring, and sharpnosed sprat, is a bony fish important to aquaculture and commercial fisheries. Description The color of the rainbow sardine i ...

(''Dussumieria acuta''). Wangratana (1980) demonstrated the differences between ''Dussumieria acuta'' and ''Dussumieria elopsoides'', while Whitehead (1985) and Randall (1996) showed that ''Dussumieria elopsoides'' does occur in the Mediterranean.

Morphology

* Size: 8 cm. to 18 cm. * Color: silvery on the sides darkening to bluish grey on the back, and lightening to almost white on the underside. * Shape: The slender rainbow sardine has an elongated body, with round belly and a pointed nose. The single dorsal (back) fin is slightly behind midpoint. The tail fin is heavily forked. The scales are very delicate and are easily detached. Like other sardines it has no lateral line, and no scales on the head. The slender rainbow sardine is primarily differentiated from the rainbow sardine, because the slender rainbow sardines do not have tiny radiating striae on the posterior part of their scales. There is some indication that the slender rainbow sardine may tend to have more vertebra than the rainbow sardine.

Distribution

The native range of the slender rainbow sardine is in the tropical and subtropical portions of the

and the

. It is found from

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

in the northeast, through

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

to northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the south, and through

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

to eastern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

, and the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

in the west. It is also found off the coasts of islands deep in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, such as

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

. Dussumieria elopsoides entered the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

via the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

in the middle of the last century. Recorded first off Israel in 1949, it is now quite common in the south-eastern Mediterranean from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Habits

The slender rainbow sardine swims in schools and while

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

it is generally found near shores. It feeds on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

, mainly

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

and smaller fish. The slender rainbow sardine spawns mainly in spring. Its eggs, and when they hatch the larvae, drift passively until they metamorphose into free-swimming fish.

Economics

Like other sardines the slender rainbow sardine is caught both as a bait fish and for human consumption. Frequently fishermen catch them in shore with a purse seine (an encircling net) and then release them in deeper water where they attract larger fish. Some sardines are made into fish meal which is then used as an animal feed or plant supplement. Oil is also extracted for a variety of uses from varnish to cooking oil. FAO code: CLUP Duss 2

Notes

References

* Whitehead, Peter J.P., (1985) ''Clupeoid fishes of the world (suborder Clupeodei). Part1 - Chirocentridae, Clupeidae and Pristigasteridae.'' FAO Species Catalogue 7. FAO, UN, Rome. x +303 pp ; * Lissner, H., (1949) ''Sardine fishing in Israel.'' Sea fisheries Research Station, Scientific Technical Information, 2: 1-25. * Ben-Tuvia, A., (1953) “New Erythrean fishes from the Mediterranean coast of Israel.” ''Nature'', 172:464-465. * El-Sayed, R.S., (1994) ''Check-list of Egyptian Mediterranean fishes.'' National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt. 77 + ix pp. * Mahgoub, Osman et al. (May 2005) “Evaluation of sun-dried sardines as a protein supplement for Omani sheep.” ''Animal Feed Science & Technology '' 120(3/4): pp 245–257.

External links

''Dussumieria elopsoides'' Integrated Taxonomic Information System

''Dussumieria elopsoides - Slender rainbow sardine'' FishBase

The Mediterranean Science Commission The Mediterranean Science Commission, or CIESM, ( French: ''Commission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la Méditerranée'') unites 24 Member States, hundreds of marine Institutes, and thousands of marine researchers from all sh ...

;
distribution map from Lifemapper
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2026508

slender rainbow sardine The slender rainbow sardine (''Dussumieria elopsoides'') is a small, subtropical, salt water fish of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea which was first described by Bleeker in 1849. ''Dussumieria hasselti'' and ''Dussumieria productissima ...

Commercial fish Fish of the Red Sea Marine fauna of South Asia Marine fish of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker