''Amblygaster leiogaster'', the smoothbelly sardinella, also known as blue sardine, blue sprat, bluebait, is a reef-associated marine species of

sardinella ''Sardinella'' is a genus of fish in the family Clupeidae found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean. They are abundant in warmer waters of the tropical and subtropical oceans. Adults are generally coastal, schooling, marine fish but juv ...

in the herring family

Clupeidae Clupeidae is a family of ray-finned fishes, comprising, for instance, the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa, and menhadens. The clupeoids include many of the most important food fishes in the world, and are also commonly caught for production ...

. It is one of the three species of genus ''

Amblygaster ''Amblygaster'' is a small genus of sardinellas in the herring family Clupeidae. It currently contains three species. Species * '' Amblygaster clupeoides'' Bleeker, 1849 (Bleeker's smoothbelly sardinella) * '' Amblygaster leiogaster'' (Valenci ...

''. It is found in the marine waters along Indo-West Pacific regions towards south western Australia. The fish has 13 to 21 dorsal soft rays and 12 to 23 anal soft rays. It grows up to a maximum length of 23 cm. The flank is gold in fresh fish but becomes black while preservation. Belly is more rounded and scutes are not prominent. It is rather closely resemble '' Amblygaster clupeoides'', but the latter has very few lower gill rakers than Smoothbelly sardinella. The fish feeds on minute organisms like

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

References

Clupeidae Fish described in 1847 Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes {{Clupeiformes-stub

See also

References