Salangidae, the icefishes or noodlefishes, are a family of small osmeriform fish, related to the

smelts Smelts are a family of small fish, the Osmeridae, found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, as well as rivers, streams and lakes in Europe, North America and Northeast Asia. They are also known as freshwater smelts or typical smelts ...

. They are found in Eastern Asia, ranging from the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

in the north to

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

in the south, with the highest

species richness Species richness is the number of different species represented in an community (ecology), ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the Abundance (ecology), abunda ...

in China. Some species are widespread and common, but others have relatively small ranges and are threatened. Depending on species, they inhabit coastal marine,

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

or fresh water habitats, and some are

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...

, only visiting fresh water to spawn.

Appearance and life cycle

They are slender, have translucent or transparent bodies and almost no

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

(females are entirely scale-less, while males have a few). The head is strongly depressed and has numerous teeth. The adults are believed to be neotenic, retaining some

larval A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

features. For example, the skeleton is not fully ossified, consisting largely of

cartilage Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. Semi-transparent and non-porous, it is usually covered by a tough and fibrous membrane called perichondrium. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints ...

. They are small fish, typically around long; only a few reach , and the largest species no more than . Icefish rapidly reach maturity, have a high

fecundity Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the capability to produc ...

and typically only live one year. Some species live in the same habitat throughout their lives, but other visit specific habitats, like rivers, estuaries or the surf zone, to lay their eggs. In at least '' Salangichthys microdon'' there are both populations that are resident and populations that are anadromous.

As food and introduced species

Icefish support important fisheries and are eaten in East Asia, often after being dried or cooked. They are also exported to southern Europe for use as a replacement for the more expensive transparent goby, a Mediterranean species used in the local cuisine. Because of their value as food fish, there have been many attempts of

introducing Introducing or Introducing... may refer to: Albums * ''Introducing... The Beatles'', 1964 * ''Introducing... Mari Hamada'', 1993 * ''Introducing...Rubén González'', 1997 * ''Introducing ... Talk Talk'', 2003 * ''Introducing...the Best Of'', by M ...

icefish (especially certain '' Neosalanx'' and '' Protosalanx'') to regions in East Asia where not native. Most attempts failed, but several were successful, and in some cases the icefish rapidly multiplied and became the most common fish in their new habitat. Feeding on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

ic crustaceans and tiny fish, they have outcompeted certain native fish like '' Anabarilius grahami'', which have become rare and threatened.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q134852 Fish of Asia Euteleostei families

Appearance and life cycle

As food and introduced species

See also

References

External links