The silver-stripe round herring, slender sprat, or Kibinago minnow (''Spratelloides gracilis'') is a small, herring-like

forage fish Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the foo ...

. They are small fish used as

fishing bait Fishing bait is any substance used to attract and catch fish, e.g. on a fishing hook. Bait items are both selected from and placed within the environment to achieve enhanced prey capture success. Traditionally, fishing baits are natural fish foo ...

, especially in skipjack tuna-fishing. It is valued as food in Japan, where it is known as ''kibinago''. These can be eaten raw, as ''

sashimi is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce. Origin The word ''sashimi'' means "pierced body", i.e. " 刺身" = ''sashimi'', where 刺し = ''sashi'' (pierced, stu ...

'', or cooked, as

whitebait Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine- ...

.''Kibinago'' at kuro-usagi.net
/ref> File:Kibinago sashimi by jetalone in Kagoshima.jpg, ''

Sashimi is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce. Origin The word ''sashimi'' means "pierced body", i.e. " 刺身" = ''sashimi'', where 刺し = ''sashi'' (pierced, stu ...

'' of ''kibinago'' (silver-stripe round herring) File:Kibinago sashimi with chopsticks by jetalone in Kagoshima.jpg, ''Kibinago sashimi ''with chopsticks File:Grilled kibinago by jetalone in Yakushima.jpg, Grilled'' kibinago

References

silver-stripe round herring silver-stripe round herring {{Clupeiformes-stub