Anchoa delicatissima
Slough Anchovy
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Clupeiformes (Herrings, Anchovies and Sardines)
Engraulidae (Anchovies)
Anchoa
Anchoa delicatissima (Slough Anchovy)
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
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Characters
Body shape: elongated. Body fairly elongate. Snout moderate, about 3/4 eye diameter; maxilla moderate, tip pointed, reaching onto inter-operculum, but not to edge of gill cover; gill cover canals of walkeri-type. Anal fin moderate, its origin usually somewhat before midpoint of dorsal fin base. A silver stripe along flank, about 3/4 eye diameter. Striking features: none.
Distribution
Eastern Central Pacific: Belmont Shores, Long Beach Harbor, California, USA south to Magdalena Bay on the Pacific coast of Baja California; not in Gulf of California.
Habitat Associations
Brackish, marine. pelagic-neritic. depth range 0-50 m.
Biology
Reportedly common in estuaries and backwaters of bays and occasionally near shores outside bays (Ref. 6792). The fifth most abundant fish taken by various gear in Newport Bay, California; a midwater schooling species caught in bag seine hauls mainly in July and September (Ref. 6361). Oviparous, with planktonic eggs and larvae (Ref. 35602).
Max length: 12.0 cm TL; common length: 7.0 cm SL; max age: 3 years.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. Oviparous (Ref. 35602). Spawn in school (Ref. 205).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2019-10-18. Resilience: High (tmax=3).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: subsistence fisheries.
References
Whitehead, P.J.P., G.J. Nelson and T. Wongratana (1988) FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 7. Clupeoid fishes of the world (Suborder Clupeoidei). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(7/2):305-579. Rome: FAO.
Watson, W. and E.M. Sandknop (1996) Engraulidae: anchovies. p. 173-183. In H.G. Moser (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current Region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations Atlas No. 33. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 1505 p.
Love, M.S., C.W. Mecklenburg, T.A. Mecklenburg and L.K. Thorsteinson (2005) Resource inventory of marine and estuarine fishes of the West Coast and Alaska: A checklist of North Pacific and Arctic Ocean species from Baja California to the Alaska-Yukon border. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, Seattle, Washington, 98104.
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