Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Elopiformes (Tarpons and tenpounders) > Elopidae (Tenpounders)
Etymology: Elops: Greek, ellops = a kind of serpent (Ref. 45335).

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; brackish; pelagic-neritic; oceanodromous. Tropical; 38°N - 37°S, 22°E - 153°W

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Indo-Pacific: Mossel Bay in South Africa, to the Red Sea and India, possibly to western Pacific (Ref. 3968).

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: L_m ? range ? - ? cm
Max length : 118 cm FL male/unsexed; (Ref. 40637); common length : 50.0 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 4967); max. published weight: 10.8 kg (Ref. 40637)

Short description Identification keys | Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 20 - 27; Anal spines: 0; Anal soft rays: 14 - 18.

Occurs in coastal waters, but enters lagoons and estuaries (Ref. 4832) [actual freshwater records remain to be confirmed]. Benthopelagic (Ref. 58302). Young and adults feed on small fishes and crustaceans (Ref. 5213). Probably spawn at sea, but the transparent larvae migrate to inshore areas and are often found in brackish water (Ref. 7050). Are voracious carnivores that take fish, squid and shrimp bait (Ref. 3968). Edible, but not tasty and full of bones (Ref. 3968). A total length of 126 cm for this species has been reported from Knysna, South Africa (G. Bernardt, pers. comm., e-mail: gerard@smallstreams.com) .

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Smith, M.M., 1986. Elopidae. p. 155-156. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. (Ref. 3968)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-1)

Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 20 June 2016

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Harmless

Human uses

Fisheries: commercial; gamefish: yes

FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators

Ecology
Ecology

Population dynamics
Growth parameters
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance

Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Maturity/Gills rel.
Fecundity
Spawning
Spawning aggregations
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Larval dynamics

Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
BRUVS - Videos

Anatomy
Gill area
Brain
Otolith

Physiology
Body composition
Nutrients
Oxygen consumption
Swimming type
Swimming speed
Visual pigments
Fish sound
Diseases & Parasites
Toxicity (LC50s)

Genetics
Genetics
Heterozygosity
Heritability

Human related
Aquaculture systems
Aquaculture profiles
Strains
Ciguatera cases
Stamps, coins, misc.

Outreach
Collaborators

Taxonomy
Common names
Synonyms
Morphology
Morphometrics
Pictures

References
References

Tools

Special reports

Check for Aquarium maintenance | Check for Species Fact Sheets | Check for Aquaculture Fact Sheets

Download XML

Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 20.7 - 28.4, mean 26.9 °C (based on 1366 cells).

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804): PD₅₀ = 0.5176 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].

Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00676 (0.00513 - 0.00892), b=2.99 (2.91 - 3.07), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).

Trophic level (Ref. 69278): 4.0 ±0.3 se; based on diet studies.

Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153): Very high vulnerability (79 of 100).

Price category (Ref. 80766): Unknown.

Elops machnata (Fabricius, 1775)