"Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century; a folk etymology says it comes from the Italian island of Sardinia, around which sardines were once supposedly abundant.
The Atheriniformes, also known as the silversides, are an order of ray-finned fishes that includes the Old World silversides and several less-familiar families, including the unusual Phallostethidae. The order includes at least 354 species. They are found worldwide in tropical and temperate marine and freshwater environments.
Grunion are two fish species of the genus Leuresthes: the California grunion, L. tenuis, and the Gulf grunion, L. sardinas. They are sardine-sized teleost fishes of the New World silverside family Atherinopsidae, found only off the coast of California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico, where the species are found on both the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California coasts. Many people enjoy catching grunion at events called "grunion runs."
The threadfin rainbowfish or featherfin rainbowfish is a rainbowfish, the only species in the genus Iriatherina. It is characterized by long beautiful fins, and is among the most attractive of the rainbowfishes.
Atherinomorus is a genus of silversides in the family Atherinidae.
Bedotia is a genus of the family Bedotiidae of fishes endemic to Madagascar.
The red-tailed silverside, or zona is a species of Madagascar rainbowfish endemic to the Mananjary River drainage in Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss and introduced species. It has often been confused with the related B. madagascariensis, which is common in the aquarium trade. In addition to meristics, the two can be separated by the exact colour pattern on their tail fin and the distinct red spot on the lower jaw of breeding male B. geayi. B. geayi was described in 1907 by Jacques Pellegrin from a type collected by the pharmacist and natural history collector Martin François Geay (1859-1910), who Pellegrin honoured with its specific name.
Chirostoma is a genus of Neotropical silversides from the Lerma River basin in Mexico, including lakes Chapala and Pátzcuaro. Fish in the genus collectively go by the common name charal/charales in their native range. They are heavily fished, but several of the species have become threatened due to habitat loss, introduced species and overfishing. Three species are considered extinct: C. bartoni, C. charari (1957) and C. compressum (1900). Four others have not been recorded recently and may also be extinct.
Poblana ferdebueni, the Chignahuapan silverside is a species of neotropical silverside endemic to Mexico. This species was described by Aurelio Solórzano Preciado and Irma López-Guerrero in 1965 from a type locality of Laguna de Almoloya, Chignahuapan Lake, Puebla State, Mexico and was given the specific name ferdebueni to honour the Spanish ichthyologist Fernando de Buen y Lozano (1895-1962) who had originally proposed the genus Poblana.
The Celebes rainbowfish is a species of sailfin silverside endemic to Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is the only known member of its genus.
Atherion is a small genus of silversides, known as the pricklenose silversides. It is the only genus in the family Atherionidae. Other authorities classify this as a monogeneric subfamily, Atherioninae, of the Atherinidae, while others include it within the subfamily Atherinomorinae. They have an Indo-Pacific distribution.
Atherinella is a genus of Neotropical silversides from freshwater, brackish and marine habitats in Mexico, Central America and South America.
Membras is a genus of fish, Neotropical silversides, from freshwater, brackish water and marine habitats along coastal parts of the Americas.
The surf silverside is a species of silverside from the order Atheriniformes found along the Pacific coast of Argentina and Chile. It is the only known member of its family and molecular evidence points to this species being sister to the Neotropical silversides of the family Atherinopsidae, with the Notocheiridae and the Atherinopsidae making up the suborder Atherinopsoidei. This species is characterised by the absence of a first dorsal fin. This species was described by Howard W. Clark in 1937 from types collected in the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile, and the specific name honours the American ichthyologist and authority on silversides, Carl Leavitt Hubbs (1894-1979).
Membras martinica, the rough silverside, is a species of Neotropical silverside from the family Atherinopsidae, it is the type species of the genus Membras.
Goby is a common name for many species of small to medium sized ray-finned fish, normally with large heads and tapered bodies, which are found in marine, brackish and freshwater environments. Traditionally most of the species called gobies have been classified in the order Perciformes as the suborder Gobioidei but in the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World this suborder is elevated to an order Gobiiformes within the clade Percomorpha. Not all the species in the Gobiiformes are referred to as gobies and the "true gobies" are placed in the family Gobiidae, while other species referred to as gobies have been placed in the Oxudercidae. Goby is also used to describe some species which are not classified within the order Gobiiformes, such as the engineer goby or convict blenny Pholidichthys leucotaenia. The word goby derives from the Latin gobius meaning "gudgeon", and some species of goby, especially the sleeper gobies in the family Eleotridae and some of the dartfishes are called "gudgeons", especially in Australia.
Ovalentaria is a clade of ray-finned fishes within the Percomorpha, referred to as a subseries. It is made up of a group of fish families which are referred to in Fishes of the World's fifth edition as incertae sedis, as well as the orders Mugiliformes, Cichliformes, and Blenniiformes. It was named by W. L. Smith and T. J. Near in Wainwright et al. (2012) based on a molecular phylogeny, but the authors suggested that the group was united by the presence of demersal eggs that are attached to a substrate. Some authors have used the ordinal name Stiassnyiformes for a clade including Mugiloidei, Plesiopidae, Blenniiformes, Atherinomorpha, and Cichlidae, and this grouping does appear to be monophyletic.
Atherinopsoidei is a suborder of the order Atheriniformes comprising two families, both of which are restricted to the Americas.
Atherinoidei is a suborder of the order Atheriniformes comprising six families, with a mainly Old World distribution, although a few species are found in the western Atlantic Ocean.
Prionotinae is a subfamily of demersal, marine ray-finned fishes, part of the family Triglidae. The fishes in this subfamily are called sea robins and are found in the Western Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Oceans, the other two Triglid subfamilies are called gurnards.
