Silver Sillago

• When in danger it buries itself completely in the sand in under a second and disappears from view.
• Its pale colouring and its habit of swimming close to the bottom make it all but invisible over the light sand of tropical beaches.
• It buries itself in the sand. Faced with a threat it sinks into the sediment in a matter of seconds and disappears, an unusual defence among coastal fishes and its most characteristic trait.
• That same behaviour lets it stay on the intertidal flats when the tide goes out, buried in the damp sand until the water returns.
• It eats invertebrates that it finds in the sediment: polychaetes, small crustaceans and molluscs.
• It is an important coastal fishery resource in the Indian Ocean and South-East Asia, and farming of it is beginning in several countries.
• Its genus has a complicated taxonomy, with species so alike that they are frequently confused in fishery statistics.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Sandy beaches, estuaries and shallow bays of the Indo-Pacific

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Sillago sihama