Alosa chrysochloris, Skipjack shad : fisheries, gamefish

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Alosa chrysochloris (Rafinesque, 1820)

Skipjack shad
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Alosa chrysochloris   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Image of Alosa chrysochloris (Skipjack shad)
Alosa chrysochloris
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Clupeiformes (Herrings) > Alosidae (Shads and Sardines)
Etymology: Alosa: Latin, alausa = a fish cited by Ausonius and Latin, halec = pickle, dealing with the Greek word hals = salt; it is also the old Saxon name for shad = "alli" ; 1591 (Ref. 45335);  chrysochloris: From the words chryso, meaning gold and chloris, meaning green (Ref. 10294).
More on author: Rafinesque.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; freshwater; brackish; pelagic-neritic; anadromous (Ref. 51243). Subtropical; 45°N - 23°N, 100°W - 82°W (Ref. 188)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Western Central Atlantic: Gulf of Mexico (from Corpus Christi in Texas eastward to Pensacola in Florida; also in rivers, e.g. Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm ?  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 50.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 188); common length : 37.5 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 188); max. published weight: 1.7 kg (Ref. 4699); max. reported age: 4 years (Ref. 12193)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Anal spines: 0. Belly with a distinct keel of scutes. Lower jaw not rising steeply within mouth; teeth prominent at front of lower jaw. Lower gill rakers slender. Back bluish green, abruptly changing to silver on flank; no dark spot at shoulder. Closely resembles A. mediocris of Atlantic coasts, which has no upper and weak lower jaw teeth, a dark shoulder spot and the body deeper than head length (Ref. 188).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Generally present in coastal marine water (Ref. 37039). Enter brackish- and freshwaters, but perhaps not always or not consistently anadromous (Ref. 188), although strongly migratory within rivers (Ref. 10294) , mostly in fast-flowing water where they are renowned for leaping. Feed on small fishes, the juveniles on insects. Spawning times and places not certain. Adults serve as hosts to the larvae (glochidia) of the economically valuable pearly mussel (Fusconaia ebena) of the Mississippi basin (Ref. 188).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Whitehead, P.J.P., 1985. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 7. Clupeoid fishes of the world (suborder Clupeoidei). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sprats, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(7/1):1-303. Rome: FAO. (Ref. 188)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 13 March 2018

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: minor commercial; gamefish: yes
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

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Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Alien/Invasive Species database | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 23.1 - 24.6, mean 23.9 °C (based on 126 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00646 (0.00371 - 0.01125), b=2.99 (2.85 - 3.13), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & Genus-body shape (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  3.9   ±0.63 se; based on food items.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (tmax=4).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Moderate vulnerability (44 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766):   Low.