Bony fish · Osmeriformes · Argentinidae

Argentine

Argentina sphyraena

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The argentine — known in Spanish as sula de altura, pez-plata, argentina, abishoya, peón, pigudo or polido, among other vernacular names — is the species Argentina sphyraena, a marine fish of the family Argentinidae, distributed through the north-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Baltic. It is of little fishery interest.

Size

20 cm – 35 cm

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

OceanCarnivore Colonial Fish Ocean

31countries

Fun facts

Its silvery scales, highly reflective and easily shed, are what give the genus its name: argentina means silvery in Latin.
Its outsized eyes make use of the residual light reaching two hundred metres down, where the human eye would make out nothing at all.
It is taken as trawl bycatch and much of it goes for fishmeal.
Its name comes from its sheen: argentina alludes to the intense silvery reflection of its flanks, produced by guanine crystals beneath the skin.
That silveriness is camouflage in twilight waters: it reflects the ambient light and erases the fish's silhouette when seen side-on.
It has very large eyes in proportion to its body, adapted to the dim light of the depths at which it lives.
It feeds on zooplankton, above all copepods and euphausiids, and forms schools near the bottom during the day.
It is taken as bycatch in deep-water trawling and goes mostly to fishmeal.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)
Habitat & environment: Sandy and muddy bottoms of the shelf and slope, between 50 and 700 m

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