Clupeidae is the family of the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa and menhadens. It includes many of the most important food fishes in the world.

Description and biology

Clupeids are mostly marine forage fish, although a few species are found in freshwater. No species has scales on the head, and some are entirely scaleless. The lateral line is short or absent, and the teeth are unusually small where they are present at all. Clupeids typically feeds on plankton, and range from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 75 centimetres (30 in) in length.^[1]

Clupeids spawn huge numbers of eggs (up to 200,000 in some species) near the surface of the water. After hatching, the larvae live among the plankton until they develop a swim bladder and transform into adults. The adults typically live in large shoals.^[2]

Commercial species

Important commercial species include:

• Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus
• Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus
• Baltic herring, Clupea harengus membras
• Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii
• Sardine, Sardina pilchardus

Genera

• Subfamily Dussumieriinae (round herrings)
  • Dayella
  • Dussumieria
  • Etrumeus
  • Gilchristella
  • Jenkinsia
  • Sauvagella
  • Spratelloides
  • Spratellomorpha
• Subfamily Clupeinae
  • Amblygaster
  • Clupea
  • Clupeonella
  • Escualosa
  • Harengula
  • Herklotsichthys
  • Lile
  • Opisthonema
• Subfamily Alosinae (shads, menhadens)
  • Alosa
  • Brevoortia
  • Ethmalosa
  • Ethmidium
  • Gudusia
  • Hilsa
  • Tenualosa
• Subfamily Pellonulinae (freshwater herrings)
  • Knightia (prehistoric)
  • Clupeichthys
  • Clupeoides
  • Congothrissa
  • Corica
  • Ehirava
  • Hyperlophus
  • Laeviscutella
  • Limnothrissa
  • Microthrissa
  • Minyclupeoides
  • Odaxothrissa
  • Pellonula
  • Poecilothrissa
  • Potamalosa
  • Potamothrissa
• Subfamily Dorosomatinae (gizzard shads)
  • Anodontostoma
  • Clupanodon
  • Dorosoma
  • Gonialosa
  • Konosirus
  • Nematalosa
• Incertae sedis (position uncertain)
  • Chirocentrodon
  • Ilisha
  • Nannothrissa
  • Neoopisthopterus
  • Odontognathus
  • Opisthopterus
  • Platanichthys
  • Pliosteostoma
  • Raconda
  • Ramnogaster
  • Rhinosardinia
  • Sardina
  • Sardinella
  • Sardinops
  • Sierrathrissa
  • Sprattus
  • Stolothrissa
  • Thrattidion

See also

List of fish families

References

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Clupeidae" in FishBase. May 2006 version.
• Miko's Phylogeny Archive

v t e Herrings True herrings Clupea Araucanian herring Atlantic herring Baltic herring Pacific herring Chosa herring White Sea herring Other herrings Freshwater herrings Longfin herrings Round herrings Thread herrings Misc herrings Alewife Atlantic thread herring Australian herring Blueback herring Deepsea herring Giant herring Hilsa herring Scaled Herring Skipjack herring Wolf herring Herring boats Herring buss Herring seiner Drifter (fishing boat) Tradewind (schooner) Lydia Eva (steam drifter) Reaper (sailing vessel) As food Herring (food) Avruga caviar Bloater Brathering Buckling Dressed herring Gibbing Gwamegi Herring soup Kipper Pickled herring Shmaltz herring Soused herring Surströmming Rollmops Related topics Herring gull Red herring Herring fair The Herring Song Herringbone Scania Market Scottish east coast fishery Marc Guylaine Netz über Bord

v t e Forage fish Marine Clupeidae Anchovies herring Ilisha mackerel (small) menhaden sardine shad sprats Other Capelin goldband fusilier halfbeak smelt krill squid (small) Freshwater Minnow Leuciscinae dace shiner Other Carp (small) killifish mosquitofish herrings river herring alewives sucker Related topics Bait ball Bait fish Feeder fish Fingerling Fry Fish migration Filter feeder Food fish Ichthyoplankton Predator fish Sardine run Shoaling and schooling