Anchovies as food Anchovies as food Anchovies are a family (Engraulidae) of small, common salt-water forage fish. There are 144 species in 17 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish. They are small, green fish with blue reflections due to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. They range from to in adult length, and the body shape is variable with more slender fish in northern populations. A traditional method of processing and preserving anchovies is to gut and salt them in brine, allow them to mature,
Upeneus moluccensis anal fin. The caudal fin is deeply forked. The chin bears a pair of barbels which do not extend past the margin of the preoperculum. The upper and lower jaws, the palatine and the vomer are covered in brush-like or villiform teeth. The back is pinkish-red in colour contrasting with the white belly, from which it is separated by single longitudinal yellow stripe which runs from the operculum to the caudal fin peduncle. The dorsal fins are yellow in colour with 3 parallel red bars while the pectoral find is a similar colour but lacks markings and the pectoral fin