Pacific rainbow smelt
{{Short description|Species of fish}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Pacific rainbow smelt
| image = Osmerus mordax (line art).jpg
| image_caption =
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| taxon = Osmerus dentex
| authority = Steindachner & Kner, 1870
}}
The Pacific rainbow smelt (Osmerus dentex), also known as the Arctic rainbow smelt or cucumber fish in Japan,{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} is a North Pacific species of fish of the family Osmeridae. The fish usually lives in marine and brackish environment, with a wide distribution from North Korea, Sea of Okhotsk to Bering Sea and British Columbia.{{cite book |last1=Allen, M. |first1=James |title=Atlas and zoogeography of common fishes in the Bering Sea and Northeastern Pacific |date=April 1988 |publisher=National Marine Fisheries Service |location=The United States of America |page=151 |url=https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/5807 |access-date=14 November 2023}} They are also seen in estuaries and coastal waters of European and Siberian shores of Arctic Ocean from White Sea to Chukota in Russian Far East.{{cite book |last1=Kottelat |first1=Maurice |last2=Freyhof |first2=Jörg |title=Handbook of european freshwater fishes |date=2007 |publisher=Publications Kottelat |location=Cornol |isbn=978-2-8399-0298-4 |page=6466 |url=https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/references/FBRefSummary.php?ID=59043 |access-date=14 November 2023}}
Description
The Pacific rainbow smelt has a cylindrical elongated body shape, with lengths ranging between {{convert|14|and|16|cm|in}}.{{cite book |title=Katalog morskich i presnovodnych ryb severnoj časti Ochotskogo morja |date=2003 |publisher=Dalʹnauka |location=Vladivostok |isbn=5-8044-0308-7 |page=204 |url=https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/references/FBRefSummary.php?ID=50550 |access-date=14 November 2023}}
The body color is mostly silver. They usually prey on plankton and squid.
Life cycle
Pacific rainbow smelt usually return to their natal streams to spawn when the water temperature reaches 2 degree Celsius and above, but the degree of homing varies from one population to another and may be genetically controlled.{{cite journal |last1=Rupp |first1=Robert S. |last2=Redmond |first2=Malcolm A. |title=Transfer Studies of Ecologic and Genetic Variation in the American Smelt |journal=Ecology |date=March 1966 |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=253–259 |doi=10.2307/1933772 |jstor=1933772 |bibcode=1966Ecol...47..253R |url=https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1933772 |access-date=14 November 2023|url-access=subscription }} Movement to spawning grounds are usually made at night when the spawning group crowd together and move upstream.{{cite WoRMS |author=Bailly, Nicolas |year=2017 |title= Osmerus dentex Steindachner & Kner, 1870 |id=254557 |access-date=14 November 2023}} The whole spawning usually lasts several hours each night for several nights.{{cite journal |last1=Rupp |first1=Robert S. |title=Shore-Spawning and Survival of Eggs of the American Smelt |journal=Transactions of the American Fisheries Society |date=April 1965 |volume=94 |issue=2 |pages=160–168|doi=10.1577/1548-8659(1965)94[160:SASOEO]2.0.CO;2 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8659(1965)94%5B160%3ASASOEO%5D2.0.CO%3B2 |access-date=14 November 2023|url-access=subscription }} Many spawned-out fish, especially males, die after spawning, but those that survive would spawn again in the following year.{{cite book |last1=Morrow |first1=James Edwin |title=The freshwater fishes of Alaska |date=1980 |pages=217–241 |publisher=Alaska Northwest Pub. Co. |url=https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1130000794267420288 |access-date=14 November 2023 |language=en}}
References
{{Reflist|32em}}