Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) > Perciformes
(Perch-likes) > Ammodytidae
Etymology: Ammodytes: Greek, ammos = sand + Greek, dytes = anyone that likes immersions, diving (Ref. 45335). More on author: Linnaeus.
Environment / Climate / Range
Marine; brackish; demersal; depth range 1 - 96 m (Ref. 57178). Temperate; 72°N - 36°N, 23°W - 42°E
Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ?, range 11 - 15 cm
Max length : 20.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 3397); max. reported age: 7 years (Ref. 729)
soft rays: 24 - 32;
Vertebrae: 60 - 68. Scales present in the midline anterior to dorsal fin and over the musculature at base of caudal fin. Belly scales in tight chevron. Margins of dorsal and anal fins straight with rays of equal length. Lateral line pores linearly arranged along the un branched canals. Back typically sandy brown.
Northeast Atlantic: Murmansk to Spain, including Iceland and the Baltic (Ref. 4674) and the Mediterranean (Ref. 39911). Two distinct but often sympatric spawning groups exist in the area but have not been given subspecies status although spawning groups differ in mean vertebral number (autumn higher than spring), otolith structure, and probably habitats.
Territorial; found in inshore waters, especially sandy bays and beaches, including the inter-tidal zone and estuaries; rarely offshore. Alternate between lying buried in the sandy substrate and swimming in schools in the water mass. Adults feed on zooplankton and some large diatoms (Ref. 3397). They hibernate in winter buried in sand at depths of 20-50 cm (Ref. 35388).
Bauchot, M.-L., 1987. Poissons osseux. p. 891-1421. In W. Fischer, M.L. Bauchot and M. Schneider (eds.) Fiches FAO d'identification pour les besoins de la pêche. (rev. 1). Méditerranée et mer Noire. Zone de pêche 37. Vol. II. Commission des Communautés Européennes and FAO, Rome. (Ref. 3397)
IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 96402)
CITES (Ref. 94142)
Threat to humans
Fisheries: highly commercial; bait: usually
ReferencesAquacultureAquaculture profileStrainsGeneticsAllele frequenciesHeritabilityDiseasesProcessingMass conversion
Estimates of some properties based on models
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82805
= 0.5156 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00282 (0.00163 - 0.00489), b=3.01 (2.86 - 3.16), based on LWR estimates for species & Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245
Trophic Level (Ref. 69278
): 3.1 ±0.1 se; Based on diet studies.
Resilience (Ref. 69278
): High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (K=0.45-0.77; tm=1-2; tmax=7).
Vulnerability (Ref. 59153
): Low vulnerability (23 of 100) .