Fish of the Sprattus genus of the Clupeinae subfamily of the Clupeidae family of the Clupeiformes order of the Clupeomorpha superorder.
(European sprat. Photo by © Hans Hillewaert. flickr.com/photos/bathyporeia)
European sprat (Sprattus sprattus) was first described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) in 1758.
It is a pelagic schooling fish inhabiting the depths of 10-150 meters. Sometimes it enters the mouths of rivers. The maximum recorded length is 16 cm; specimens up to 12 cm long are more common. It feeds on plankton crustaceans.
(European sprat. Photo by © Rudolf Svensen. uwphoto.no / fishbase.org)
It is a permanent inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea, which is the target of commercial fishing.
Names of European sprat (Sprattus sprattus) in other languages are as follows:
Papalina (Albanian), Цаца (Caca) (Bulgarian), Sprot (Dutch), Παπαλίνα (Papalina) (Greek), Espadín (Spanish), Papalina (Italian), Europäische Sprotte (German), Czprot (Polish), Espadilha (Portuguese), Șprot (Romanian), Европейский шпрот (Evropeisky shprot), Европейская килька (Evropeiskaja kiljka) (Russian), Papalina (Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian), Çaça (Turkish), Sprat (French), Šprot obecný (Czech).