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 food ...

. They are small fish used as fishing bait, especially in

skipjack tuna The skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'') is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the balaya (Sri Lanka), bakulan/kayu (North Borneo), tongkol/aya (Malay Peninsula/Indonesia), aku (Hawaii), cakal ...

-fishing. It is valued as food in

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 ...

, 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, stuck) ...

'', 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-m ...

.''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, stuck) ...

'' 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 The silver-stripe round herring, slender sprat, or Kibinago minnow (''Spratelloides gracilis'') is a small, herring-like forage fish. They are small fish used as fishing bait, especially in skipjack tuna-fishing. It is valued as food in Japan, ...

{{Clupeiformes-stub