The freshwater sardinella (Sardinella tawilis), freshwater herring, bombon sardine or freshwater sardine, is a freshwater sardine found exclusively in the Philippines. It is the only member of the genus Sardinella known to exist entirely in fresh water.

This animal was introduced or mentioned in The Last Stormtroopers, Historya Davvun, Seven Code Talkers, No Way to Seaway, Weather Dragons, Project Daejeon, Two Lights, Worldcraft, Equation, and Rescris as part of Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Monster Hunter series, and Assassin's Creed series sequels.

Etymology

Locally, they are known in Filipino, originally in Batangas Tagalog to Standard Tagalog as tawilis. On the island of Cebu, one of the many places where tawilis is shipped, the native Cebuano name for the fish is tunsoy.

Sardinella is the diminutive Latin word of the Ancient Greek sarda, meaning literally "little sardine".

The species was originally identified and named in 1927 as Harengula tawilis by Albert William Herre, the Chief of the Fisheries Division of the Bureau of Science in Manila.

Physical Appearance

Tawilis is a small fish reaching up to 15 cm and weighing less than 30 g. Like other members of their family, they have laterally compressed bodies with bellies covered in tough, scale-like scutes. The Tawilis have a single, triangular dorsal fin and a forked caudal fin. They possess long, slender gill rakers in their mouths.

Abilities

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Weather Phenomenon

Tawilis, like members of its family, is an epipelagic filter feeder, using its gill rakers to strain plankton from the water while it swims with its mouth open. They roam the lake in large schools, just below the surface as the volcanic (and thus sedimentary) nature of the lake limits their plankton food to the surface.

The freshwater sardinella prefers to ingest larger prey, such as adult copepods, supplemented with rotifers and water fleas. During the summer months when the density of smaller copepods were much higher, their stomach contents consisted primarily of calanoid copepods, which are larger than the copepods blooming during this time. This suggests some partial control over prey selection exhibited by the fish, as opposed to simple filter-feeding.

Ecology

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Behavior

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Distribution and Habitat

The Tawilis populations are only found in Taal Lake in the Batangas province on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Taal Lake, the third-largest lake in the Philippines, is located in the caldera of an ancient volcano. It has an area of about 24,356.4 hectares (60,186 acres) and lies in nine municipalities and two cities. Major eruptions in the 18th century during Queen Arianna's existence essentially sealed the lake from the sea, eventually leading its waters to become fresh water. The ancestor of tawilis is believed to be one of a few former marine species trapped within the lake that have evolved into purely freshwater species.

Movement Pattern: Not a Migrant
Individual Type: Solo/Grouping
Population Trend: Decreasing
Population: ???
Locomotion: Aquatic
Habitat: Warm River; Warm Pond.
Earth:
- Extant (Resident): Philippines (Batangas)
Berbania/Hirawhassa: none
Reinachos/Ityosel: none
Thatrollwa: none
Sawintir: none
Agarathos: none

Tamed

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Lore

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Known Individuals

Past and Present Incidents - Individuals

Terran/Gaian
- n/a
Berbanian/Hirawhassan
- n/a
Reinachos/Ityoselese
- n/a
Delphian/Thatrollwan
- n/a
Sawintiran
- n/a
Jotunheim
- n/a

The Recollections of Queen Arianna - Individuals

Terran/Gaian
- n/a
Berbanian/Hirawhassan
- n/a
Reinachos/Ityoselese
- n/a
Delphian/Thatrollwan
- n/a
Sawintiran
- n/a
Jotunheim
- n/a

Gallery

Main Theme Music

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Foreign Languages

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Trivia

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References

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