Raitt's sand eel
Encyclopedia
Raitt's sand eel, Ammodytes marinus, is a fish in the Ammodytidae family. It contains likenesses to the lesser sand eel
Lesser sand eel
The lesser sand eel or sand lance, Ammodytes tobianus, is a fish, which may be up to 20 cm long. Its body has an elongated shape with a rounded cross section. The head is also elongated and pointed, and it contains a sharp prominent lower jaw. The upper jaw overlaps, and can open forward to...

. Its distinguished by the fact of that belly scales are found to be irregularly formed; and having no scales on the lobes of the tail. Furthermore, the dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...

 is made of at least 56 to 63 rays, with an overall maximum length, non-exceeding the 25cm. The fish color can range to turquoise
Turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl648·4. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue...

 of the back, to the silvery sides and belly.

This is an offshore sandeel species that breeds from November through into February, and can survive up to 9 years. It craves on small worm
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...

s, small crustaceans and plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...

, including fish eggs and larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e.
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