Black Sea sprat
Kingdom
Phylum
Order
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Clupeonella cultriventris
Life Span
5 years
Length
10-14.5
3.9-5.7
cminch
cm inch 

The Black Sea sprat, Clupeonella cultriventris, is a small fish of the herring family, Clupeidae. It is found in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov and rivers of its basins: Danube, Dnister, Dnipro (Ukraine), Southern Bug, Don, Kuban. It has white-grey flesh and silver-grey scales. A typical size is 10 cm (maximum 15 cm) The life span is of up to 5 years. The peak of its spawning is in April and it can be found in enormous shoals in sea-shores, filled all-round coastal shallows, moving quickly back into the sea at a depth of 6–30 metres. Used for food; it has around 12% fat in flesh.

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It is one of the most abundant fishes in the Sea of Azov. It is important prey for other fishes, particularly the pikeperch.

The Caspian tyulka Clupeonella caspia has been long considered a subspecies of C. cultriventris, C. cultriventris caspia, and a common name "Black and Caspian Sea sprat" was then applied to the whole.

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Geography

Continents
Subcontinents
Introduced Countries
Biogeographical realms

References

1. Black Sea sprat Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_sprat
2. Black Sea sprat on The IUCN Red List site - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4987/11107179

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