Common golden mackerel
| Common golden mackerel | ||||||||||||
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Fish not yet sexually mature |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Coryphaena hippurus | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The common gold mackerel , also great gold mackerel ( Coryphaena hippurus .) Is a fish from the family of the gold mackerel (Coryphaenidae) and belongs to the order of the mackerel relatives (Carangiformes). In English they are known as "Dolphinfish", not related to dolphins , and in parts of the Pacific as Mahi Mahi .
description
The elongated body reaches a length of 130 to 180 centimeters. The writer Zane Gray is said to have caught a 57-kilogram golden mackerel near Tahiti in 1930 , the official world record is 39.46 kilograms. On average, the fish weigh about 15 pounds (6.80 kilograms), the females are usually smaller.
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The body is compressed on the sides and has small, round, smooth scales. The head has a protruding lower jaw and a high, almost vertically sloping forehead with a sharp keel. The forehead of males becomes higher and higher over the years. The small, curved, pointed teeth are not only in the jaw, but also in the palatine bone and ploughshare .
On the back there is only a single dorsal fin , supported by 58 to 66 soft rays , which extends from the neck to almost the tail. The spiked rays are stunted. The anal fin is shorter and is supported by 25 to 31 soft rays. The pectoral fins are short and sickle-shaped, the pelvic fins can be partially recovered in pits on the abdomen. The caudal fin is long and deeply forked.
The common golden mackerel is bright blue-green on the top, lighter on the sides and silvery white on the belly. There are some blue polka dots on the head and back. The dorsal fin is purple-bluish, the other fins bluish, the caudal fin yellow. The surface often shows changing purple and gold colored reflections. Dark transverse bandages are sometimes visible on the back when excited. The colors fade quickly when the fish is caught and comes out of the water.
behavior
The species occurs epipelagically in tropical and subtropical seas, but nowhere often. In autumn it can also be found in the Mediterranean . It lives individually or in small schools. The food is formed by various surface fish, as well as crabs and squids. The common golden mackerel likes to hunt flying fish . When hunting, it can reach a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, making it one of the fastest fish. In addition, it can jump up to six meters out of the water in pursuit of the flying fish.
The female lays around 500,000 eggs. The fry are particularly slender and often transversely banded. The characteristic head shape is not yet pronounced. The common golden mackerel is an excellent food fish and its catch is popular with many sport fishermen .
literature
- JR Norman, FLS and FC Fraser: Giant fish, whales and dolphins , Paul Parey publishing house, Hamburg and Berlin, 1963.
- Hans Hvass : Fish of the World , Gebrüder Weiss Verlag, Berlin-Schöneberg, 1975.
- CH Brandes: Die Perschfische in: Grzimeks Tierleben , Kindler Verlag AG, Zurich, 1970, ISBN 3-463-16905-3 .
supporting documents
- ↑ Both names referred to the same fish, once as "leader", then as "ponytail"
- ^ According to JR Norman, FLS and FC Fraser: Riesenfische, Wale und Delphine , Verlag Paul Parey, Hamburg and Berlin, 1963.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Common golden mackerel on Fishbase.org (English)
- Coryphaena hippurus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Collette, B., Acero, A., Amorim, AF, Boustany, A., Canales Ramirez, C., Cardenas, G., Carpenter, KE, de Oliveira Leite Jr., N., Di Natale, A ., Fox, W., Fredou, FL, Graves, J., Viera Hazin, FH, Juan Jorda, M., Minte Vera, C., Miyabe, N., Montano Cruz, R., Nelson, R., Oxenford , H., Schaefer, K., Serra, R., Sun, C., Teixeira Lessa, RP, Pires Ferreira Travassos, PE, Uozumi, Y. & Yanez, E., 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2014.