Common Name
Silver Anchovy
Year Described
Swain & Meek, 1885
Identification
Dorsal Fin: 13-16
Anal Fin: 15-19
Pectoral Fin:
Gill Rakers: 27-43
Vertebrae: 43-45
Lateral Line Scales: 40-45
Body elongate and laterally compressed. Body slender (15-19% SL). Snout conical and 3/4 eye diameter in length. Mouth very large and inferior. Maxilla tip blunt and does not extend over rear preoperculur edge. Suborbital bone much longer than eye. Teeth small. Pseudobranch longer than eye diameter (reaches onto operculum). Branchiostegal rays joined only near lower jaw tip and narrowly separated along rest of isthmus. Dorsal fin at midpoint of body with a concave rear margin. Pectoral fin long, low and falls well short of pelvic fin base (~ eye diameter). Pelvic fin closer to pectoral fin than anal fin. Pelvic fin with seven rays. Anal fin origin behind last dorsal fin ray. Caudal fin forked. Anus closer to pelvic fin than anal fin origin. Scales cycloid and deciduous. Lateral line absent.
Color
Body bright silvery with an abruptly dark blue to dusky gray back. Silvery lateral stripe not obvious in living fish. Fins clear.
Size
Maximum size to 150mm TL. Common under 100mm TL.
Habitat
Inshore and offshore coastal waters (to 65m). Forms large schools.
Range
Massachusetts south to Florida and the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, and Venezuela to northern Brazil.
References
McEachran, J.D. & J.D. Fechhelm. 1998. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Volume 1: Myxiniformes to Gasterosteiformes. University of Texas Press, Austin. i-viii + 1-1112.