Fish of the Spicara genus of the Sparidae (sea breams or porgies) family of the superfamily Percoidea of the Percoidei suborder of the Perciformes order of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Picarel. Photo by © Theo Modder. fishbase.org)
Picarel (Spicara smaris) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It inhabits the depth of 15-330 meters. Often, it prefers to swim close to the oozy bottom and fields of Posidonia. It is a pelagic schooling species. The maximum recorded length is 20 cm; specimens up to 14 cm long are more common. It feeds on zooplankton.
(Picarel. Photo by © Mat Vestjens. fishbase.org)
It is a permanent inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea.
Names of picarel (Spicara smaris) in other languages as follows:
Maridha (Albanian), Вретенест смарид (Vretenest Smarid) (Bulgarian), Μαρίδα (Marida) (Greek), Smaris (Hebrew), Caramel (Spanish), Zerro (Italian), Smaris (German), Pysoń smukły (Polish), Trombeiro-boga (Portuguese), Smarid (Romanian), Обыкновенная смарида (Obyknovennaja smarida) (Russian), Gira oblica (Serbian, Croatian), Girica (Slovenian), İstrongiloz balığı (Turkish), Picarel (French).