Animalia > Chordata > Osmeriformes > Osmeridae > Hypomesus > Hypomesus transpacificus

Hypomesus transpacificus (Delta smelt)

Synonyms: Hypomesus transpacificus transpacificus
Language: Danish; Mandarin Chinese; Russian

Wikipedia Abstract

Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) is an endangered slender-bodied smelt, about 5 to 7 centimetres (2.0 to 2.8 in) long, in the family Osmeridae. Endemic to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary of California, it mainly inhabits the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone of the estuary, except during its spawning season, when it migrates upstream to freshwater following winter "first flush" flow events (around March to May). It functions as an indicator species for the overall health of the Delta's ecosystem.
View Wikipedia Record: Hypomesus transpacificus

Endangered Species

Status: Critically Endangered
View IUCN Record: Hypomesus transpacificus

Attributes

Adult Length [1]  3.937 inches (10 cm)
Brood Dispersal [1]  In the open
Brood Egg Substrate [1]  Lithophils (gravel-sand)
Brood Guarder [1]  No
Litter Size [1]  2,600
Maximum Longevity [1]  1 year
Migration [2]  Anadromous
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates)
Female Maturity [1]  1 year

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Mount Hakusan National Park V 219319 Toyama, Japan

Prey / Diet

Bosmina longirostris[3]
Neomysis mercedis[3]
Pseudodiaptomus forbesi[3]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Carassius carassius (Crucian carp)1
Gasterosteus aculeatus (Alaskan stickleback)1
Salvelinus alpinus (Arctic charr)1

Predators

Morone saxatilis (Striper bass)[4]
Sternula antillarum (Least Tern)[5]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Diphyllobothrium hottai[6]
Proteocephalus tetrastomus[6]

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Frimpong, E.A., and P. L. Angermeier. 2009. FishTraits: a database of ecological and life-history traits of freshwater fishes of the United States. Fisheries 34:487-495.
♦ 2Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 3Life History and Status of Delta Smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, California, PETER B. MOYLE, BRUCE HERBOLD, DONALD E. STEVENS AND LEE W. MILLER, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 121:67-77, 1992
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5Szoboszlai AI, Thayer JA, Wood SA, Sydeman WJ, Koehn LE (2015) Forage species in predator diets: synthesis of data from the California Current. Ecological Informatics 29(1): 45-56. Szoboszlai AI, Thayer JA, Wood SA, Sydeman WJ, Koehn LE (2015) Data from: Forage species in predator diets: synthesis of data from the California Current. Dryad Digital Repository.
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0