You can sponsor this page

Sierrathrissa leonensis Thys van den Audenaerde, 1969

West African pygmy herring
Upload your photos and videos
Pictures | Google image
Image of Sierrathrissa leonensis (West African pygmy herring)
Sierrathrissa leonensis
Picture by FAO

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Clupeiformes (Herrings) > Dorosomatidae (Gizzard shads and sardinellas)
Etymology: Sierrathrissa: Latin, serra = saw + Greek, thrissa, -es = shad (Ref. 45335);  leonensis: The generic and specific names make allusion to the known geographic range of this genus and species (Ref. 121309).

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; pelagic; depth range 0 - 8 m (Ref. 188). Tropical; 18°N - 0°N

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Africa: rivers of West Africa (Ref. 188), from Senegal to Cameroon (Ref. 3509), including Senegal, Gambia, Bia and Niger rivers (Ref. 81269), and Wouri and Sanaga rivers in Cameroon (Ref. 51193, 81631); also in the man-made lakes Kainji in Nigeria and Volta in Ghana (Ref. 188, 81269).

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?, range 2 - ? cm
Max length : 3.5 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 130826); common length : 2.3 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 188)

Short description Identification keys | Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12 - 15; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 16 - 20; Vertebrae: 36 - 41. Diagnosis: Small, slender fishes, easily mistaken for the juveniles of Pellonula (Ref. 188). Belly rounded, with 0-10 minute pre-pelvic scutes, without arms, supporting a low membranous keel, post-pelvic scutes similar, the keel more apparent, and a W-shaped scute located at the pelvic fin bases; lower gillrakers 13-16; pelvic insertion well before dorsal fin, with 1 unbranched and 5-6 branched rays; anal fin beginning under dorsal fin base (Ref. 188, 2849, 81269, 81631, 120915, 121309). It commmonly occurs with Pellonula, which has pelvic fins with 1 unbranched and 7 branched rays, normal scutes and the pelvic fin insertion more or less below the dorsal fin origin (Ref. 188).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

A riverine species, but also in man-made lakes (Ref. 188). Schooling in open waters and at about 2 to 8 m in Lake Kainji, rising to about 30 cm from the surface at night in Lake Volta (Ref. 188, 3034). It feeds on plankton, especially cladocerans and rotifers (Ref. 188, 120915). It breeds at about 1.8-2.0 cm standard length (Ref. 188).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturities | Reproduction | Spawnings | Egg(s) | Fecundities | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Whitehead, P.J.P., 1985. 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(7/1):1-303. Rome: FAO. (Ref. 188)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 19 October 2019

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: commercial
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items
Diet compositions
Food consumptions
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growths
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversions
Recruitments
Abundances
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturities
Fecundities
Spawnings
Spawning aggregations
Egg(s)
Egg developments
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
BRUVS - Videos
Anatomy
Gill areas
Brains
Otoliths
Physiology
Body compositions
Nutrients
Oxygen consumptions
Swimming type
Swimming speeds
Visual pigment(s)
Fish sounds
Diseases / Parasites
Toxicities (LC50s)
Genetics
Genetics
Electrophoreses
Heritabilities
Human related
Aquaculture systems
Aquaculture profiles
Strains
Ciguatera cases
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
Collaborators
References
References

Tools

Special reports

Download XML

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoobank | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 1.0000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00501 (0.00193 - 0.01305), b=3.13 (2.91 - 3.35), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this (Sub)family-body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.1   ±0.30 se; based on food items.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (tm<1).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (10 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Low.