Micralestes acutidens, Sharptooth tetra : aquarium, bait

You can sponsor this page

Micralestes acutidens (Peters, 1852)

Sharptooth tetra
Upload your photos and videos
Pictures | Google image
Image of Micralestes acutidens (Sharptooth tetra)
Micralestes acutidens
Picture by Gratwicke, B.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Characiformes (Characins) > Alestidae (African tetras)
Etymology: Micralestes: Greek, mikros = small + Greek,lestes = thief (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Peters.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; pelagic; pH range: 6.2 - 8.0; dH range: ? - 25; potamodromous (Ref. 51243). Tropical; 22°C - 26°C (Ref. 1672)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Africa: Congo, Okavango, Zambezi (Ref. 7248, 120641), Kunene and east coast rivers south to the Pongolo (Ref. 7248), Cross and Sanaga Rivers (Ref. 80290) and Tanzania (Ref. 4967). Nilo-Sudan and West-African reports of M. acutidens (e.g. Ref. 367, 51193) are misidentifications of M. elongatus (see DVD version of Ref. 81279; see also Ref. 2880).

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 3.4  range ? - ? cm
Max length : 9.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 4967); max. published weight: 2.00 g (Ref. 3799); max. reported age: 3.00 years (Ref. 7248)

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 10-11; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 17 - 20. Diagnosis: inner dentary teeth multicuspid; 14-17 anal fin branched rays; dorsal fin apical tip black; scales of flank without melanophores concentrated along basal margin, pigment diffuse or absent (Ref. 80290).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Shoals in clear, flowing or standing, open water; appears to co-exist with the tigerfish Hydrocynus forskalii in open water although it is heavily preyed upon by that predator, particularly those shoals of tigerfish ranging up to 45 cm in length (Ref. 13337). Omnivorous, often feeding from surface waters on winged insects; also takes insect larvae, crustaceans and eggs and fry of other fish (Ref. 13337). Matures after a year; partial spawner of moderate fecundity, with usually fewer than 700 eggs per female; shoals migrate upstream after first summer rains; breeds throughout the summer months; used as forage fish and as bait for tigerfish and pike (Ref. 7248).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Skelton, P.H., 1993. A complete guide to the freshwater fishes of southern Africa. Southern Book Publishers. 388 p. (Ref. 7248)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 30 April 2018

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: of no interest; aquarium: commercial; bait: usually
FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Stocks
Ecology
Diet
Food items
Food consumption
Ration
Common names
Synonyms
Metabolism
Predators
Ecotoxicology
Reproduction
Maturity
Spawning
Spawning aggregation
Fecundity
Eggs
Egg development
References
Aquaculture
Aquaculture profile
Strains
Genetics
Electrophoreses
Heritability
Diseases
Processing
Nutrients
Mass conversion
Collaborators
Pictures
Stamps, Coins Misc.
Sounds
Ciguatera
Speed
Swim. type
Gill area
Otoliths
Brains
Vision

Tools

Special reports

Download XML

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome, nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.01230 (0.00684 - 0.02212), b=3.10 (2.94 - 3.26), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species & (Sub)family-body (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  2.9   ±0.33 se; based on food items.
Generation time: 1.8 ( na - na) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 2 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  High, minimum population doubling time less than 15 months (K=0.63; tmax=3).
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Low vulnerability (23 of 100).