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capelin

Species of fish

Species / taxontaxon foodQ143359

Also known as Mallotus villosus · caplin

Scientific name: Mallotus villosus
1
Sources
1.Stated in Integrated Taxonomic Information SystemRetrieved 2013-09-19
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Rank: species
1
Sources
1.Stated in Integrated Taxonomic Information SystemRetrieved 2013-09-19
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Parent taxon: Mallotus
1
Sources
1.Stated in Integrated Taxonomic Information SystemRetrieved 2013-10-22
View statement on Wikidata ↗

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The capelin or caplin is a small forage fish of the smelt family found in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin also eat a great deal of krill and other crustaceans. Among others, whales, seals, Atlantic cod, Atlantic mackerel, squid and seabirds prey on capelin, in particular during the spawning season while the capelin migrate south. Capelin spawn on sand and gravel bottoms or sandy beaches at the age of two to six years. When spawning on beaches, capelin have an extremely high post-spawning mortality rate which, for males, is close to 100%. Males reach 20 cm (8 in) in length, while females are up to 25.2 cm (10 in) long. They are olive-coloured dorsally, shading to silver on sides. Males have a translucent ridge on both sides of their bodies. The ventral aspects of the males iridesce reddish at the time of spawn.

Overview

All data

48 statements · 50% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Taxon common name: Capelin
gromadnik
Kaplin
毛鱗魚
lodde
Short name: M. villosus

On other databases

39 identifiers linking capelin across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

50%

externally sourced

Source last edited July 15, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). capelin (Q143359). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/capelin-Q143359