English Name: Common silverbiddy
Family: GERREIDAE
Local Name: Uniya
Order: Perciformes
Size: Common to 15 cm; max. 25 cm
Specimen: MRS/0064/87
Distinctive Characters: Dorsal fin with 9 spines and 10 rays. Anal fin with 3 spines and 7 rays. Pectoral fin with 15 or 17 rays. Body depth 3.0-3.3 in standard length. Body very slender. Second anal spine slender and short, equal to or shorter than eye diameter. Caudal fin deeply forked.
Colour: Pale olive above to silvery below. 7 or 8 faint dusky bars on sides of body, more pronounced in juveniles. Prominent black tips to spinous part of dorsal fin. Caudal fin uniformly dusky.
Habitat and Biology: Occurs along sandy beaches to a depth of 20 m. Also enters estuaries and brackish lagoons. Feeds on small organisms living on sandy bottoms.
Distribution: Indo-Pacific.
Remarks: Gerres ovena is common in shallow sandy lagoons of Maldives. It was previously misidentified as G. lucidus Cuvier in the Catalogue of Fishes of the Maldives, Vol. 1, page 66.