page_title: Sillaginidae
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Sillaginidae / Distribution and habitat
caption_attribution_description: Approximate current distribution of the smelt-whiting family, Sillaginidae based on sources given in English wikipedia article. Map base from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tiger_shark_distribution.PNG
context_page_description: The Sillaginidae, commonly known as the smelt-whitings, whitings, sillaginids, sand borers and sand-smelts, are a family of benthic coastal marine fish in the order Perciformes. The smelt-whitings inhabit a wide region covering much of the Indo-Pacific, from the west coast of Africa east to Japan and south to Australia. The family comprises only five genera and 35 species, of which a number are dubious, with the last major revision of the family in 1992 unable to confirm the validity of a number of species. They are elongated, slightly compressed fish, often light brown to silver in colour, with a variety of markings and patterns on their upper bodies. The Sillaginidae are not related to a number of fishes commonly called 'whiting' in the Northern Hemisphere, including the fish originally called whiting, Merlangius merlangus.
  The smelt-whitings are mostly inshore fishes that inhabit sandy, silty, and muddy substrates on both low- and high-energy environments ranging from protected tidal flats and estuaries to surf zones.
context_section_description: The Sillaginidae are distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, ranging from the west coast of Africa to Japan and Taiwan in the east, as well occupying as a number of small islands including New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. While they have a fairly wide distribution, the highest species densities occur along the coasts of India, China, Taiwan, South East Asia, the Indonesian Archipelago and northern Australia. One species of sillaginid, Sillago sihama, has been declared an invasive species to the Mediterranean, passing through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea since 1977 as part of the Lessepsian migration, becoming widespread.
  Sillaginids are primarily inshore marine fishes inhabiting stretches of coastal waters, although a few species move offshore in their adult stages to deep sand banks or reefs to a maximum known depth of 180 m. All species primarily occupy sandy, silty or muddy substrates, often using seagrass or reef as cover. They commonly inhabit tidal flats, beach zones, broken bottoms and large areas of uniform substrate. Although the family is marine, many species inhabit estuarine environments, with some such as Sillaginopsis panijus also found in the upper reaches of the estuary. Each species often occupies a specific niche to avoid competition with co-occurring sillaginids, often inhabiting a specific substrate type, depth, or making use of surf zones and estuaries. The juveniles often show distinct changes in habitat preference as they mature, often moving to deeper waters. No members of the family are known to undergo migratory movements, and have been shown to be relatively weak swimmers, relying on currents to disperse juveniles.
caption: The current geographical distribution of the family Sillaginidae
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