photo : David Darom Relevant synonyms Alanetta forsskali Atherina forsskali Atherina pinguis Aterinops lacunosus Hepsetia pinguis Pranesus pinguis Misidentification Atherinomorus lacunosus Meristic formula D1 , VI-VII; D2, I-II + 9-10; A, I-II + 12-17; P, 14-17; V, I + 5; LL, 38-42

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body elongated robust subcylindrical slightly compressed. Two well-separated dorsal fins, the first with 6-7 flexible spines originating behind midpoint. Second dorsal fin and anal fin opposite each other. Anal fin with one spine (rarely two) and variable number of rays. Caudal fin forked. Pelvic fin abdominal in position in front of midpoint. Large head with large eyes. Mouth terminal and protrusible. Small villiform teeth on the premaxilla, palatine and vomar. Anterior edge of preopercular with clear notch above its angle. color : back grey to beige with white belly. A broad silvery stripe along the body sides. size : common 2-10 cm (max. 15 cm). DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Atherina spp.: no preopercular notch (present in Atherinomorus lacunosus); high dentary bone (shallow dentary bone in Atherinomorus lacunosus). Mugilidae: four spines in the first dorsal fin. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Schooling species. Feeds on zooplankton. Large eggs with adhesive filaments to anchor the eggs to solid objects. habitat : coastal waters, common in lagoons and semi-enclosed seas.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Alexandria, Egypt, 1902. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : wide Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea, eastern Africa to Japan, northern Australia and central Pacific. Mediterranean : recorded first in Alexandria, Egypt (Tillier, 1902), successively recorded in Israel (Norman, 1927) and (W. Steinitz, 1927), Iskenderun, Turkey (Kosswig, 1950), Lebanon (George et al., 1964), Dodecanese (Quignard and Pras, 1986) and Libya (Zupanovich and El-Buni, 1982), Tunisia. ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Very common. speculated reasons for success : unknown. MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Very common species but due to its small size in most countries, not used as target species. In some countries like Egypt it uses as commercial species.

KEY REFERENCES Ben-Tuvia A. and Golani D., 1993. Some observations on the biology of atherinid fishes from the Mediterranean and Red Sea coast of Israel. Le Système littoral Méditerranéen. Maison de l'Environnement de Montpellier. Actes du Colloque Scientifique, Montpellier, 58-63 pp. Kimura S., Golani D., Iwatsuki Y., Tabuchi M. and Yoshino T., 2007. Redescription of the Indo-Pacific atherinid fishes Atherinomorus forskalli, Atherinomorus lacunosus and Atherinomorus pinguis. Ichthyological Research, 54: 145-159. Tillier J.E., 1902. Le Canal de Suez et sa faune ichthylogique. Mémoires de la Société zoologique de France, 15: 279-318. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: January 2009 ©ciesm 2002