Grace Richards
Mrs. Cook Science
November 15, 2015
Bay Anchovy
Anchoa mitchilli
Domain: Eukaryote
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Clupeiformes
Family: Engraulidae
Genus: Anchoa
Species: mitchilli
The Bay Anchovy lives in shallow tidal waters with muddy bottoms, brackish waters, and a wide range of salinities in the Eastern United States and Gulf of Mexico. Bay Anchovies are bilateral, which means that they can be split once equally down the middle. They have slender, silvery-green bodies up to 4 inches in length, a horizontal silver stripe along their bodies, and a forked coddle fin. One of their behavioral adaptations is that they have been seen to come out at night to avoid predators. A structural adaptation is that they have a lateral line to sense other fish nearby. A functional adaptation is that they lots of eggs to increase their offspring’s chances of survival; many eggs do not survive or get eaten by predators. Bay Anchovies are heterotrophic, and eat zooplankton or fish larvae. Their predators include Bluefish, Weakfish, Striped Bass, and other medium sized fish. Bay Anchovies are also ectothermic, or cold-blooded. One interesting fact about Bay Anchovies is that they have one of the largest populations of fish.
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