Fish of the Alosa (river herrings) genus of the Alosinae (shads) subfamily of the Clupeidae family of the Clupeiformes order of the Clupeomorpha superorder.
(Twaite shad. Photo © Ichthyology Database of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. artedi.nrm.se)
Twaite shad (Alosa fallax) was first described in 1803 by the French ichthyologist and statesman Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756 – 1825).
It is a pelagic schooling species inhabiting the depths of up to 300 meters. The maximum recorded length is 60 cm, the average size is about 40 cm long. The maximum weight is 1.5 kg. It feeds on crustaceans and small fishes.
(Twaite shad. Photo © buglobalenvironmentalsolutions.co.uk)
It is a permanent inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea, found in its central and southern parts. For spawning, twaite shad swims upstream to rivers, often over long distances, including along the Bojana River to the largest lake on the Balkan Peninsula – Lake Skadar.
Names of twaite shad (Alosa fallax) in other languages are as follows:
Kubla (Albanian), Finta (Hungarian), Финта (Finta) (Bulgarian), Fint (Dutch) Σαρδελομάνα (Sardelomana), Φρίσσα (Frissa) (Greek), Saboga (Spain), Cheppia (Italian), Finte (German), Parposz (Polish), Savelha (Portuguese), Scrumbie (Romanian), Атлантическая финта (Atlanticheskaya finta) (Russian), Ćepa, Lojka (Serbian, Croatian), Navadna čepa (Slovenian), Tirsi (Turkish), Alose feinte (French), Placka skvrnitá (Czech).