Peruvian Anchoveta
Engraulis ringens
Ancestor: Unknown
Temporal Range:
Evolved: Unknown
Extinct: Not yet.
Geographical Range:
Location: Warm coastal areas, usually Western coastlines, in the Southern hemisphere.
Viable Habitat: Shallow coastal areas in tropical sea over oxygen minimum zones and with high nutrient runoff from the land to feed planktonic blooms. While they are not usually found more than 100km from a shoreline, a lack of competition species and extreme blooms of algae that feed plankton to feed the anchovies, mean they can often be found further out in the ocean on Planet Cat Sanctuary.
Size: Up to 20 cm
Dietary Needs: Filter feeders of plankton, most importantly zooplankton. Their most important prey, copepods and krill, are present on the planet.
Life Cycle: They spawn in winter at zones of high-nutrient deep sea upwelling at the coast and eggs develop suspended in the ocean. There is no parental care. They have a short lifespan of just 3-4 years and are reproductively active after 1 year.
Other: Peruvian anchoveta form large schools as a defence against predators. In the ocean humboldt squid and in some locations also steelhead trout feed on the anchovies. Their mirrored chrome-like scales can create a flickering visual display that can confuse visually-dependent predators, making the anchovy more difficult to discern against other interactions in the environment of sunlight with the water.