''Atherinopsis californiensis'', the jack silverside or jacksmelt,
[Leo Pinkas]
California Marine Fish Landings For 1972 and Designated Common Names of Certain Marine Organisms of California
fish bulletin 161, Marine Resources Region, 1974 is a species of
neotropical silverside native to 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 contine ...
coast of
North America from
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
, United States to southern
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
, Mexico. This species grows to in
total 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 ...
and is important commercially as a source of human food. It is the only known member of its
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
. The adults occur in inshore areas, such as bays. They form schools. This species is a
demersal spawners in inshore habitats, it is oviparous and the larvae are
planktonic, living at the very surface of the water and feeding on
phytoplankton. The eggs are attached to one another and to the substrate by adhesive filaments in the
chorion
The chorion is the outermost fetal membrane around the embryo in mammals, birds and reptiles (amniotes). It develops from an outer fold on the surface of the yolk sac, which lies outside the zona pellucida (in mammals), known as the vitell ...
.
Other common names
California
smelt, blue smelt, horse smelt, ''peixe rey, pescado del rey, pesce rey'', silverside
References
External links
*
Atherinopsidae
Monotypic fish genera
Fish described in 1854
{{Atheriniformes-stub