Atherinella crystallina is a species of Neotropical silversides (Atherinopsidae).

It is found from the Río Sinaloa to Río Verde, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Mexico.

[2] It is normally a freshwater species but it also occurs in estuaries as deep as 10 metres (33 ft).

Their food includes zooplankton, pelagic fish larvae and pelagic fish eggs.

[1] A. crystallina was described as Thyrina crystallina by David Starr Jordan and George Bliss Culver in 1895 from types collected from the Río Presidio in Sinaloa, western Mexico.