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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

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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 Maturities | Reproduction | Spawnings | Egg(s) | Fecundities | 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)

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 |

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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 (0.00514 - 0.00889), 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)