Description

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Anal spines: 0. Body `shad-like'; upper and lower head profiles straight. Gill rakers moderately thick and short, tips pointed, usually shorter than gill filaments. Teeth well developed in both jaws. Resembles A. sphaerocephala, which has a blunter head, with round upper and lower head profiles; A. caspia has more gill rakers (50 to 180) and A. brashnikovi is more slender and `herring-like'.

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Clupeiformes

Family: Alosidae

Genus: Alosa

Species: Alosa saposchnikowii Grimm, 1885

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Euryhaline and migratory but non-anadromous. One of the most cold-loving Alosa of the Caspian (among the first to migrate in spring to the north). Feeds on large crustaceans and small fishes. Spawns in northern Caspian from end of April (peak in mid-May), moving into shallow water and spawning at depths of 1-6 m and salinities of 0.07-11 ppt. The young later move southward; some perhaps remain in the north.

Habitat

brackish