Glassy sprat

The glassy sprat (Hyperlophus translucidus) is a type of sprat fish.[1] The fish, when alive, is translucent, so it gets the second word in its scientific name from the Latin word translucidus, meaning transparent, diaphanous.[2] In animal classification the glassy sprat belongs to Osteichthyes(some resources classified as Actinopterygii), Clupeiformes, Clupeidae, Hyperlophus. The glassy sprat is native to Australia and mainly found in Australia. It is marked as NE because it has not yet been evaluated by the World Animal Protection. It is mainly used as an economical aquatic product. In ecosystems they are at the bottom end of the food chain, feeding mainly on plankton, which are less aggressive and very vulnerable to other fish. Glassy sprat are tiny in size and translucent with a silvery streak that extends from its tail to just behind its head.[2] As early as a hundred years ago, Australians harvested the glassy sprat in large quantities and it featured on the table as food for a long time. Due to its poor appearance, it is not a very good ornamental fish.[3]

Glassy sprat
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Clupeiformes
Family:
Clupeidae
Subfamily:
Pellonulinae
Genus:
Hyperlophus
Species:
H. translucidus
Binomial name
Hyperlophus translucidus
McCulloch, 1917

Other Names

The glassy sprat is also known by the names; Glas-sandbrisling; Glassy sprat; Grassy sprat; Translucent sprat, and Transparent sandy sprat.[3]

History

The glassy sprat is a marine and estuary species that occurs mainly in nearshore zones, seagrass areas, and shallow estuaries. It is often captured as a by-product of fisheries. Although it is easy to catch such fish because of its number, it has never been a commercial fish. Although the fish is often found in by-products of fisheries, catches like this only represent a very small fraction of the total population and do not have any negative impact on their population's survival. This species represents a small amount of by-catch in the New South Wales ocean hauling fishery (NSW Fisheries 2003), and has also been recorded as by-catch in the Moreton Bay prawn trawl fishery (Robins-Troeger 1994).[4] At the same time due to his huge number and humble size and he had no influence on the sea where it was, so glassy sprat has marked as Least Concern.

Biology

Glassy sprat is one kind of herring, so it has most of the characteristics of it. It's brackish water fish live in areas closer to the water surface, their head is small, body shape is streamlined, extended and side flat. The dorsal fin is located in the middle of the body opposite the abdominal fin, the belly side is silvery white.

Color

Glassy sprat have a more special color than other fish of the same species. Its body is mainly composed of black, silver and some translucent parts. There is translucent sprat all the way through their head to the caudal fin, and tiny black dots locate irregular down mainly in back, dorsal and caudal fins, also on the lips and chin, besides it also have a dark point in every anal-fin ray.

Body Structure

The general body shape of Glassy Sprat is side-flat, streamline, fairly elongate, the head of the it is small, however their eyes are big, with large mouth and long branchial cleft. The scales are small and the sidelines are straighter. Their dorsal fins and hip fins are symmetrical, and their tail fin is wedged shape. They do not have Dorsal spines and anal spines. The number of their dorsal soft rays, Anal soft rays. vertebrae, is 15-16, 19-22, 40-42 respectively. Belly keeled, with 17 + 9 scutes; about 19 dorsal scutes with low keels from head to dorsal fin origin. Second supra-maxilla paddle-shaped,[5] lower portion larger, branchiostegal rays 4. Anal fin origin under or slightly behind base of last dorsal fin ray. [6]

Size

The usual size of Glassy sprat is the width of the adult's two fingers, and the width of the fish body is about two-thirds of the long of the first knuckles of an adult. Adult fish can have a maximum length of about six centimeters(2.3 inch), Compared with other herring, they are very small.(The length of Clupea harengus adult fish is up to 45 cm long) So they lack self-preservation in the face of other fish.

Habits

Glassy sprat rest at night and forage during the day time, They often gather in large numbers and appear in groups and the main food for them is unprotected small underwater insects and plankton. They mainly live in seagrass areas,the depth of the species ranges from 0 to 50 meters .which means that they prefer live in shallow salty and brackish waters with see grass. Of the 52 fish species that can be caught in the seagrass area of sea area East Australia, Glassy sprat exists like a overlord, it has the highest fish density and it's a huge number. It also includes a number of marine protected areas including the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Moreton Bay Marine Park, the Great Sandy Marine Park and the Jervis Bay Marine Park (MPAtlas, accessed 21-4-2017).

Distribution

This fish belongs to the Australian characteristics of fish species, mainly in two states, Queensland and New South Wales, they often live in brackish water area closer to the mainland, specific location is around subtropics 24°s - 34°s, 150°e - 156°E. According to the records, the location where the fish has been found is from Hervey Bay in Queensland through to the mid southern coast of NSW, including, Brisbane River, Mary River Heads, Caloundra, Moreton Bay, and Noosa River in Queensland; Port Stephens, Lake Illawara, Lake Macquarie, Sans Souci (Botany Bay), in Sydney, Harbour and Jervis Bay in NSW. [7]

Reproduction

Glassy sprat is sexual propagation, Ovipara, In Vitro Fertilization. Females lay their eggs first, male fish excrete a lot of semen after the female lays eggs, it will make the water dye some color. The fish roe of Glassy sprat have mucus on the surface of their egg membrane and can be glued to some stones, moss, water grass, each female can produce about tens of thousands of eggs. From September to November, is Glassy sprat's main spawning time is an average of one per week for females, Their success rate in hatching is not very high but because of the large number, new offspring born each year is still in a staggering number. The hatching time of fish eggs is relatively uncertain, basically 1-5 days time frame out, after hatching, the young fish will stay there as a base for some estuaries until they return to the sea, for example estuary in southeast Queensland. and after a while they will return to the sea.

Feeding methods

Glassy sprat has transparent parts of the body and some reflective scales, although the individual is relatively small but still belongs to a somewhat special shape fish, some people may want to breed. If you want to breed he should be raised in the form of and raising brackish sea fish.[8]

Tools needed

Lighting: aquarium lighting equipment includes metal halogen lamps, fluorescent lamps, mercury lamps and coral lamps, it is recommended to choose the appropriate light. Heating equipment: Small aquariums can use 100-300W electric heat pipes which is easy to buy and fixed to both ends of the tank. CO2 supplementation equipment: It can keep the water quality stable, and when the PH value of seawater drops, it can consider a method of supplementing carbon dioxide. Water quality testing equipment: It can be used to detect the pH of water.

A brackish tank

First all all a brackish tank is required, normal water has different pH and alkalinity than see water, The pH value of brackish tank should be around 8(±0.5 )and a specific gravity of 1.012(±0.8), At the same time, you need to use a humidifier to regulate the temperature of the aquarium to around 25 degrees Celsius. In this way, the fish can get a suitable living environment.[9]

Configure the sea water

Generally, the finished artificial sea salt dissolved into fresh water, this is the common use of artificial seawater. Here are some things to watch out for, Do not use metal containers when mixing seawater. Take care to measure the water quality of sea water regularly every day, put the fish down after quality of the see water is stable. After making see water successful, cycle filtration, heating and oxidation should be initiated.

Artificial environment

This fish is more often active in seagrass areas, so the artificial environment should have a certain amount of seagrass. At the same time, some sand is required to create a more realistic eco-fish tank.

Reference
  1. "Fish.gov entry". Archived from the original on 2007-09-01. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  2. "Hyperlophus translucidus". fishesofaustralia.net.au. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  3. Hyperlophus translucidus McCulloch, 1917https://www.gbif.org/species/172783755
  4. Munroe , T., Daniel Gaughan (Department of Fisheries, G. of W. A., & Wahidah Mohd Arshaad (Fisheries Research Institute of Malaysia). (2017, March 2). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/98472908/98846842#geographic-range.
  5. Whitehead, P. (1985). Clupeoid fishes of the world: suborder Clupeoidei: an annotated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  6. Hyperlophus translucidus summary page. FishBase. https://www.fishbase.in/summary/Hyperlophus-translucidus. .
  7. Baker, J. (2013). Status reports on rare and endemic species and other marine fauna of conservation concern in the Northern Rivers CMA Region. New South Wales. Three reports for the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, NSW. (2013).
  8. “Brackish Fish Care Sheet.”Aqueon Aquarium Products: It's all about the fish!. https://www.aqueon.com/.
  9. “How To Set Up Your Brackish Aquarium.” All Pond Solutions, Link

Bibliography
  • Glassy Sprat, Hyperlophus translucidus McCulloch 1917. Hyperlophus translucidus. http://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3983.
  • Australia, A. of L. (n.d.). Species: Hyperlophus translucidus (Glassy Sprat). Hyperlophus translucidus : Glassy Sprat | Atlas of Living Australia. http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:f0376154-eca0-4158-aa65-bf272cfdcecc#overview.
  • Allaby, M. (1999). A dictionary of zoology. Oxford University Press.
  • Jack G., Joan Greenwood, and Greg A. Skilleter. "Comparison of demersal zooplankton in regions with differing extractive-dredging history, in the subtropical." Plankton Biol. Ecol 49.1 (2002): 17-26.
  • J. E., Ross, P. M., & Connolly, R. M. (2007). Patterns of small fish distributions in seagrass beds in a temperate Australian estuary. Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 87(5), 1297.
  • Munroe, T. A., Wongratana, T., & Nizinski, M. S. Herrings (also, sardines, shads, sprats, pilchards, and menhadens).
  • Baker, J. L. (2013). STATUS REPORT ON RARE AND ENDEMIC SPECIES AND OTHER MARINE FAUNA OF CONSERVATION CONCERN IN THE NORTHERN RIVERS CMA REGION, NEW SOUTH WALES.
  • Hossain, Md Afzal. Ecology and Physiology of Forage Fish Species in the Murray Estuary and Coorong, South Australia. Flinders University, School of Biological Sciences, 2017.
  • Dempster, T., & Kingsford, M. (2004). Drifting objects as habitat for pelagic juvenile fish off New South Wales, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research, 55(7), 675–687. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF04071
  • Baker, J. (2013). Status reports on rare and endemic species and other marine fauna of conservation concern in the Northern Rivers CMA Region. New South Wales. Three reports for the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, NSW. (2013).
  • Whitehead, P. (1985). Clupeoid fishes of the world: suborder Clupeoidei: an annotated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.



This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.