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A tightly packed shoal of northern anchovies

Herrings and anchovies

Herrings, anchovies and their relatives are an order of fish that contains nearly 400 species. These fish are highly streamlined for fast swimming and often form huge shoals which makes many species commercially important for the fishing industry.

Scientific name: Clupeiformes

Rank: Order

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Herrings and anchovies distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Shallow seas Shallow seas
Shallow seas cover the continental shelves. These sunlit, or neritic, waters are where the oceans are most productive, where biomass is highest and where all the major sea fisheries of the world take their catches.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

About

Clupeiformes is the order of ray-finned fish that includes the herring family, Clupeidae, and the anchovy family, Engraulidae. The group includes many of the most important food fish.

Clupeiformes are physostomes, which means that the gas bladder has a pneumatic duct connecting it to the gut. They typically lack a lateral line, but still have the eyes, fins and scales that are common to the fish family, although not all fish have these attributes. They are generally silvery fish with streamlined, spindle-shaped, bodies, and they are often schooling. Most species eat plankton, which they filter from the water with their gill rakers.

Read more at Wikipedia

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Classification

  1. Life
  2. Animals
  3. Vertebrates
  4. Bony fish
  5. Ray-finned fishes
  6. Herrings and anchovies

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