Caranx sexfasciatus
Bigeye Trevally
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Carangidae (Jacks)
Caranx
Caranx sexfasciatus (Bigeye Trevally)
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
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Characters
Body shape: fusiform / normal. This species is distinguished by the following characters: dorsal profile moderately convex anteriorly; adipose eyelid well developed, moderate anteriorly, posterior eyelid extends onto eye to rear border of pupil; gill rakers (including rudiments) 6-8 + 15-19 = 21-25; straight part of lateral line with 0-3 anterior scales followed by 27-36 strong, dark scutes; breast completely scaly; vertebrae 10+15; upper jaw with outer row of strong canines widely spaced in adults, and an inner band of small villiform teeth, widest at symphysis; on lower limb of first gill arch jaw with a single row of strong conical teeth widely spaced in adults. Colour in life with adults' head and body silvery olive to iridescent blue-green above, silvery olive to whitish below; small blackish spot, much smaller than pupil diameter, at upper angle of opercle (this spot evident on specimens of about 14 cm fork length); second dorsal fin olive to blackish, the lobe with a white tip (white tip becomes more obvious with increasing size) (Ref. 9894).
Description: Anal and caudal fins yellowish to black; body oblong and compressed; ventral profile slightly convex; pectoral fins falcate; anal fin with 2 detached spines (Ref. 2334, 90102).
Distribution
Indo-Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to Hawaii, north to southern Japan and the Ogasawara Islands, south to Australia and New Caledonia. Eastern Pacific: southwestern coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico and the Gulf of California to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands (Ref. 9283).
Habitat Associations
Freshwater, brackish, marine. reef-associated. depth range 0-146 m. Found in: estuaries, mangroves, coral reefs.
Biology
Adults inhabit coastal and oceanic waters associated with reefs (Ref. 9283, 58302). Pelagic at 1-96 m (Ref. 58302). They are often seen in large daytime schools but solitary at night when feeding (Ref. 90102). During the day they are usually seen milling in stationary aggregations (Ref. 44894), forming slow-moving schools in the passes or outside the reef (Ref. 4795). Juveniles may be encountered in estuaries (Ref. 9283, 44894), occasionally entering rivers and penetrating well inland (Ref. 2847, 44894). Adults feed mainly on fishes, squids and crustaceans (Ref. 9283, Ref. 90102). They are caught mainly on hook-and-line; also with gill nets, purse seines, and other artisanal gear (Ref. 9894). Marketed fresh, dried or salted (Ref. 9283) and frozen (Ref. 9987). Consumed broiled and baked (Ref. 9987).
Max length: 120.0 cm TL; common length: 60.0 cm FL; max weight: 18000 g.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2018-12-13. Resilience: Medium (K=0.24).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; gamefish.
References
Honebrink, R. (1990) Fishing in Hawaii: a student manual. Education Program, Division of Aquatic Resources, Honolulu, Hawaii. 79 p.
Salini, J.P., S.J.M. Blaber and D.T`. Brewer (1994) Diets of trawled predatory fish of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, with particular reference to predation on prawns. Aust. J. Mar. Freshwat. Res. 45(3):397-411.
Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen and J.E. Hanley (1989) Pisces. Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Zoological Catalogue of Australia, Vol. 7. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 665 p.
Smith-Vaniz, W.F. (1999) Carangidae. Jacks and scads (also trevallies, queenfishes, runners, amberjacks, pilotfishes, pampanos, etc.). p. 2659-2756. In K.E. Carpenter and V.H. Niem (eds.) FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific. Vol. 4. Bony fishes part 2 (Mugilidae to Carangidae). Rome, FAO. 2069-2790 p.
Frimodt, C. (1995) Multilingual illustrated guide to the world's commercial warmwater fish. Fishing News Books, Osney Mead, Oxford, England. 215 p.
Fricke, R. (1999) Fishes of the Mascarene Islands (Réunion, Mauritius, Rodriguez): an annotated checklist, with descriptions of new species. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein, Theses Zoologicae, Vol. 31:759 p.
Ocean Biogeographic Information System (2006) OBIS-extracted Depth Data. Harvested by E.Agbayani July 2006 at www.iobis.org.
Gross, M.R. and R. Shine (1981) Parental care and mode of fertilization in ectothermic vertebrates. Evolution 35(4):775-793.
Allen, G.R. and M.V. Erdmann (2012) Reef fishes of the East Indies. Perth, Australia: Universitiy of Hawai'i Press, Volumes I-III. Tropical Reef Research.
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