Bony fish · Perciformes · Ammodytidae

Small Sandeel

Ammodytes tobianus

Data Deficient

There is not enough information to assess its risk of extinction. See full glossary

The small sandeel — known in Spanish as aguacioso or lanzón — is a marine ray-finned fish of the family Ammodytidae.

Size

up to 20 cm

Lifespan

7 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

School

Gathers in coordinated schools, typical of fish.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

Fun facts

It spends much of the day and the whole winter buried in the sand, emerging in dense shoals to feed on plankton.
It is the mainstay of the diet of puffins, terns and other North Sea seabirds, to the point that the industrial fishery for it has been linked to the decline of several Scottish colonies.

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)
Habitat & environment: Fine sand and gravel bottoms of the north-east Atlantic, between 1 and 96 m; it spends the night and the winter buried in the sediment
Sexual maturity: 18 months
Litter / clutch size: 4,000-20,000 eggs per female, attached to the sand

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammodytes_tobianus