European cisco
Coregonus albula (Linnaeus, 1758)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Coregonus albula, known as the vendace or as the Least cisco, is a species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It is found in lakes in northern Europe, especially Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia and Estonia, and in some lakes of Norway, the United Kingdom, northern Germany, and Poland. It is also found in diluted brackish water in the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, both of which are in the Baltic Sea.
The length of an adult is normally about 20 cm (8 in). The maximum age is about ten years.
The vendace is traditionally the most important target of freshwater fisheries in parts of Fennoscandia and Russia. Vendace roe is considered a delicacy, which has been granted a PDO status in the Swedish Bothnian Bay archipelago (Kalix löjrom).
Wikipedia contributors, Coregonus albula; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:10:26.043553+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Coregonus albula (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- European cisco
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Salmoniformes
- Family
- Salmonidae
- Genus
- Coregonus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSalmoniformes
- familySalmonidae Cuvier, 1816
- subfamilyCoregoninae Bonaparte, 1845
- genusCoregonus Linnaeus, 1758
- speciesCoregonus albula (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Coregonus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Coregonus maxillaris Günther, 1866 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus maraena (Bloch, 1779) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus ladogae Pravdin, Golubev & Belyaeva, 1938 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus megalops Widegren, 1863 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus macrophthalmus Nüsslin, 1882 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus lucinensis Thienemann, 1933 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus johannae (Wagner, 1910) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus fontanae Schulz & Freyhof, 2003 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus fatioi Kottelat, 1997 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| muksunCoregonus muksun (Pallas, 1814) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Coregonus pravdinellus Dulkeit, 1949 | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| houtingCoregonus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758) | SalmonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Cyprinus muraenula Wulff, 1765 Wulff, 1765 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula finnica Günther, 1866 Günther, 1866 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula ladogensis Berg, 1948 Berg, 1948 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula olonensis Borisov, 1924 Borisov, 1924 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula pereslavicus Berg, 1932 Berg, 1932 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula pereslawicus Borisov, 1924 Borisov, 1924 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula vodlosericus Lukash, 1939 Lukash, 1939 | synonym |
| Coregonus sardinella vessicus Dryagin, 1933 Dryagin, 1933 | ambiguous synonym |
| Coregonus albula var. norvegica Günther, 1866 Günther, 1866 | synonym |
| Salmo albula Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula perejaslawica Polyakov, 1874 Polyakov, 1874 | synonym |
| Coregonus albula topozeri Novikov, 1947 Novikov, 1947 | synonym |
| Salmo maraenula Bloch, 1782 Bloch, 1782 | synonym |
| Salmo vimba Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | synonym |
| Salmo maraenula Bloch, 1779 Bloch, 1779 | synonym |
| Coregonus sardinella marisalbi Berg, 1916 Berg, 1916 | synonym |
| Coregonus brevis Mäklin, 1869 Mäklin, 1869 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=127178 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:YD7R. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.