Latin name

Sphyraena pinguis

Other name

Striped barracuda, brown barracuda.

Identification

The body of the Red Barracuda is elongated, slender, slightly compressed at the sides, covered with rather large scales. The head is large, with a long snout. The mouth is large, the lower jaw protruding slightly forward, the upper jaw reaching the front edge of the eye. Both jaws have strong, sharp, flattened teeth, large in the front of the mouth and small in the back, with a few triangular flattened teeth on the palate. 

Features of fish fins

The first of the Red Barracuda's two dorsal fins has 5 barb rays.

Fish colouring

Top of head and body gray or brownish with greenish tinge, sides and belly silvery white. Dark stripes and spots on body absent, a longitudinal indistinct dark gray or dark brown stripe on sides of body (from top of snout through eye to midpoint of caudal fin base). Second dorsal fin dark, anal fin yellowish.

Distribution

Widespread in the tropical and subtropical zones of the Indo-Pacific region, from southern Africa to southern Australia, Papua New Guinea, southern Japan, known from the Red and Mediterranean Seas. The species traveled through the Suez Canal to the eastern Mediterranean, where it was recorded off the coast of Palestine. In the following years it spread along the coasts of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, up to and including the Aegean Sea, and also off Malta. It is fully naturalized in the eastern Mediterranean where it is now a commercial species. Known from Balaklava Bay (Black Sea, Crimea) where 2 immature individuals were caught. They may have been brought to the Sevastopol area in the ballast water of some ship.

Habitat

Marine pelagic-pridon fish. It lives both near the surface at depths of 3-6 meters and at the very bottom. 

Size

The maximum length of these fish is 50 cm, usually 20-30 cm. 

Behavior

Active during the day. They stay in schools, sometimes large. Juveniles prefer shallow coastal areas with silty, sandy-silt or rocky bottoms, often covered with vegetation. Adults prefer more open and deeper areas.  

Food and feeding habits

Predators. Feeds mainly on fish.

Reproduction

The biology of this species is poorly understood. Breeds in summer.

Fishing

A highly commercial fish species.

Relationship with a person

Harmless.