Menidia menidia
Atlantic Silverside
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Atheriniformes (Silversides)
Atherinopsidae (New World Silversides)
Menidia
Menidia menidia (Atlantic Silverside)
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.
Distribution
Western Atlantic: Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada to northeastern Florida in USA.
Habitat Associations
Brackish, marine. pelagic-neritic. depth range 0-3 m. Found in: estuaries, seagrass beds.
Biology
Adults feed on copepods, mysids, shrimps, small squids and marine worms (Ref. 7251); also eggs of their own species (Ref. 5951). Preyed upon by striped bass (Ref. 7251) and bluefish (chief predators) (Ref. 5951). Oviparous, eggs are deposited on the substrate during a spawning run along the shore (Ref. 38155). Silversides are sometimes used as live food for trout (Ref. 7251).
Max length: 15.0 cm TL; common length: 11.5 cm TL; max age: 2 years.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2013-01-29. Resilience: High (K=1.1-1.4; tmax=2).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial; aquarium: commercial.
References
Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
Smith, C.L. (1997) National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 720 p.
Adams, S.M. (1976) Feeding ecology of eelgrass fish communities. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 105(4):514-519.
Sargent, P.S., D.A. Methven, R.G. Hooper and C.H. McKenzie (2008) A range extension of the Atlantic silverside, Menidia menidia, to coastal waters of southwestern Newfoundland. Canadian Field-Naturalist 122(4): 338-344.
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