''Larimichthys polyactis'', called the redlip croaker, small yellow croaker, little yellow croaker or yellow corvina, is a species of croaker native to the western Pacific, generally in temperate waters such as the East China Sea and the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour term ...

Evolution

Phylogenomic studies indicate this species emerged from the same

common ancestor Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

of '' L. crocea'' around 25.4 million years ago.

Diet

They are

benthopelagic The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer o ...

feeders that usually eat shrimp,

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 ...

, or sometimes small fishes.

Habitat

They remain in shallow waters above 120 m, but avoid brackish conditions. They are typically found where the sea floor is sand or mud.

Morphology

Males can reach 42 cm while the common length is about 30 cm. Their body shape is almost rectangular. They have red lips, grey gold body, gold belly and light yellow fins. The inside of its mouth is white and the gill slit is black. In its head are two hard, pale, white bones that keep balance when they swim, which is also used as a material for medicine. They can make noise by moving their air bladder in order not to scatter.

Behavior

They have a habit of leaping above the sea. In winter, they move to warm water. The breeding season is from March to June. Usually they spawn 30,000 ~ 70,000 eggs.

Relation to humans

Once an abundant commercial fish off the coasts of China, Korea and Japan, its population collapsed in the 1970s due to

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in the ...

. Global catch later rebounded, with 388,018 t landed in 2008. Salted and dried, they are a food product known as ''gulbi'' (굴비) in Korean.

Yeonggwang Yeonggwang County (''Yeonggwang-gun'') is a county in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. Speciality Yeonggwang is a large producer of a fish, the small yellow croaker which are sometimes given by Korean people as a gift to others. It is cal ...

gulbi is a prized delicacy, selling for over $100 a bunch.

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1072528 Sciaenidae Commercial fish Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish described in 1877 Fish of Korea