Sleeper
Not Kosher
Description
Some sleepers are eaten where they're caught, especially larger ones like the bigmouth sleeper, which has white flesh and is pan-fried or used in stews in Central America and the Caribbean. Most are too small to bother with.
Sleepers (family Eleotridae) are goby-like fish, about 180 species, found mostly in the tropical Indo-Pacific but also in subtropical and temperate areas. Many live in freshwater streams and brackish estuaries, and some are fully marine. Australians call them gudgeons.
Also known as
- Sleeper goby
- Gudgeon
- Bigmouth sleeper
Sleeper in foreign languages
| Hebrew | Sleeper |
| Yiddish | Sleeper |
| Arabic | Sleeper |
| Spanish | Sleeper |
| Portuguese | Sleeper |
| French | Sleeper |
| Italian | Sleeper |
| German | Sleeper |
| Greek | Sleeper |
| Russian | Sleeper |
| Turkish | Sleeper |
| Chinese | Sleeper |
| Japanese | Sleeper |
| Korean | Sleeper |
| Hindi | Sleeper |
| Bengali | Sleeper |
| Vietnamese | Sleeper |
| Thai | Sleeper |
| Indonesian | Sleeper |
Warnings & Kosher Issues
- Not kosher when in doubt. Sleeper gobies range from scaled to scaleless depending on the species. Ask a trusted rabbi.
- Kosher status depends on the species. Sleepers range from having ctenoid or cycloid scales (which would make them kosher) to having reduced, embedded, or no scales at all. Check the specific fish, and confirm with a reliable kosher authority when the scales are tiny or absent.
- 'Sleeper' covers many species with very different scaling, so the name alone doesn't settle whether it's kosher.