Fish of the Atherina genus of the Atherininae subfamily of the Atherinidae (Old World silversides) family of the Atheriniformes (silversides) order of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Big-scale sand smelt. Photo by © Roberto Pillon. naturamediterraneo.com)
Big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) was first described in 1810 by the French naturalist Antoine Risso (1777-1845).
The maximum recorded length is 20 cm. This schooling species inhabits the coastal part of the sea near the mouths of the rivers, in their lower reaches. It can inhabit freshwater lakes, having a pelagic lifestyle. It feeds on small crustaceans, worms and mollusks.
(Big-scale sand smelt. Photo by © Roberto Pillon. fishbase.org)
It is a permanent inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea.
It was stocked and acclimatized in the freshwater lakes of Bracciano, Albano, Bolsena, Nemi and so on (Italy).
Names of big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) in other languages are as follows:
Aterina symadhe (Albanian), Атерина (Aterina) (Bulgarian), Kleine koornaarvis (Dutch), Αθερίνα (Atherina) (Greek), Atherina (Hebrew), Pejerrey mediterráneo (Spanish), Latterino capoccione (Italian), Kleiner Ährenfisch (German), Aterynka sródziemnomorska (Polish), Peixe-rei-do-Mediterrâneo (Portuguese), Aterină (Romanian), Южноевропейская атерина (Juzhnojevropejskaja aterina) (Russian), Oliga (Serbian, Croatian), Mali gavun (Slovenian), Gümüş balığı (Turkish), Joël (French).