Salangidae

Salangidae, the icefishes or noodlefishes, are a family of small osmeriform fish, related to the smelts. They are found in Eastern Asia, ranging from the Russian Far East in the north to Vietnam in the south, with the highest species richness in China. Some species are widespread and common, but others have relatively small ranges and are threatened. Depending on species, they inhabit coastal marine, brackish or fresh water habitats, and some are anadromous, only visiting fresh water to spawn.

Salangichthys microdon is a species of icefish found in Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. With the recent removal of S. ishikawae to the genus Neosalangichthys this species is the only remaining member of the genus Salangichthys. This species grows to a total length of . Despite its small size, it is considered a food fish and caught in commercial fisheries.

Salanx is a genus of icefishes native to Eastern Asia, ranging from Korea and Japan, through China to Vietnam. They are small fish, up to in standard length.

thumb | 220x124px | right Hemisalanx brachyrostralis is a species of icefish endemic to the Yangtze basin, China. It is the only known species in the genus Hemisalanx, after Hemisalanx prognathus was moved to genus Salanx. In a study of the five freshwater icefish species in the Yangtze, it was a relatively low-density species, being much less frequent than Neosalanx taihuensis and N. oligodontis, but more than Protosalanx hyalocranius and N. tangkahkeii. H. brachyrostralis reaches up to in total length.

Neosalangichthys ishikawae, the Ishikawa icefish, is a species of Salangidae that is endemic to marine waters near the coast in northern Honshu, Japan. Originally placed in the genus Salangichthys, the species was assigned in 2012 to the monotypic genus Neosalangichthys. Adults stay in relatively shallow open marine waters, but larve and immatures typically stay off beaches, often in the surf zone, in waters that range from marine to brackish. Unlike the more widespread S. microdon with which it often occurs, N. ishikawae does not occur in fresh water.

Protosalanx is a small genus of icefishes that are native to China, Korea and Vietnam where they primarily inhabit coastal waters and nearby fresh waters. They are commercially fished and used for aquaculture in China, where also introduced to some inland waters like Lake Dianchi. In addition to being eaten locally in Asia, they are exported to southern Europe as a replacement of the more expensive transparent goby, a Mediterranean species used in the local cuisine. This replacement is often done openly, but sometimes it is done fraudulently.