New Zealand sprat
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| New Zealand sprat | ||||||||||||||
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| Sprattus muelleri (Klunzinger, 1879) |
The New Zealand sprat, Sprattus muelleri, is a herring-like, marine fish in the family Clupeidae found in the subtropical southwest Pacific Ocean endemic to New Zealand. Its depth range is from the surface to 110 m, and its length is up to 13 cm.
The New Zealand sprat has a gill cover without bony radiating striae, and the tooth plate on the tongue is narrow, pointed at each end, width about 4 or 5 times in length, and the lateral teeth moderate. scales are without fine striae on exposed posterior part. The pterotic bulla are absent, and the last two anal rays are normal. It is a schooling species found in coastal waters, from beaches down to 110 m or more. It has an apparently long spawning season (July to January) around the South Island, but not a fractional spawner. Eggs are present in mid-summer near the Clutha River mouth (but samples may have included the New Zealand blueback sprat, Sprattus antipodum). More data is needed to resolve this.
Coloration is green-grey on the back.
[edit] References
- "Sprattus muelleri". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. May 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
