Coryphaena hippurus
Dolphinfish
NS
GNR
Collection Details
Specimens
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Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Coryphaenidae (Dolphinfishes)
Coryphaena
Coryphaena hippurus (Dolphinfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
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Characters
Elongate, compressed, and relatively slender body; relatively large pectoral fins; concave anal fin; tooth patch on tongue small and oval shaped, covering about one-third of tongue surface; gill rakers on first arch number 1 or 2 on upper limb and 6 to 11 on lower limb in juveniles, and none on upper limb and 8 or 9 on lower limb in adults; pectoral fin acute, longer than half of head length, with 17 to 20 rays; dorsal fin with 58 to 66 rays; anal fin with 25 to 30 rays; lateral line scales number 200 to 280; vertebrae number 30 or (rarely) 31: 13 or 14 precaudal and 17 or 18 caudal.
Bright bluish dorsally, golden yellow with dark flecks laterally, and whitish ventrally; fins bluish or greenish; juvenile specimens patterned with broad light and dark bars that extend onto dorsal and anal fins; colors fade quickly after death.
Distribution
Worldwide in tropical and warm temperate seas in both oceanic and coastal waters; widespread in the Gulf of Mexico.
Habitat Associations
Tropical and warm temperate seas in both oceanic and coastal waters
Biology
Crustaceans, squids, and ray-finned fishes
200 cm TL
Adults are found in open waters but also near the coast (Ref. 9293, 11230). Form schools. Feed on almost all forms of fish and zooplankton; also takes crustaceans and squid (Ref. 2850). Sexual maturity is reached in 4-5 months (3 for captive fish) (Ref. 11441). Spawn in the open sea and probably approximate to the coast when water temperature rises (Ref. 9293). Eggs and larvae are pelagic (Ref. 6755). Attracting devices such as floating bundles of bamboo reeds or cork planks are used to concentrate dolphin fish before the nets are set. Marketed frozen (Ref. 9987) and fresh and is of high value (Ref. 9293). Caught by trolling and on tuna longlines; also occasionally with drift nets (Ref. 9846).
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. In East African waters, spawning season may last from March to early June and spawning occurs inshore. In the western Pacific, sex ratios were about equal during spawning season. Spawning in the western Atlantic occurs over an extended period of time.
Spawn naturally in captivity without artificial inducement (Ref. 41779).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2010-09-17. Resilience: High (K=0.4-1.2; tm<1; tmax=5; Fec=85,000).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: highly commercial; gamefish; aquaculture: commercial.
References
Gibbs and Collette 1959
Böhlke and Chaplin 1968
Hoese and Moore 1977, 1998
Palko et al. 1982
Collette 1986a, 2001d, 2002a,b
Robins and Ray 1986
Smith 1986b
Boschung 1992
Schaldach et al. 1997
Smith 1997
Oxford 1999
Smith-Vaniz et al. 1999
Palko, B.J., G.L. Beardsley and W.J. Richards (1982) Synopsis of the biological data on dolphin-fishes, Coryphaena hippurus Linnaeus and Coryphaena equiselis Linnaeus. FAO Fish. Synop. (130); NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS Circ. (443).
IUCN (1994) 1994 IUCN red list of threatened animals. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, U.K.
Collette, B.B. (1999) Coryphaenidae. Dolphinfishes, "dolphins". p. 2656-2658. 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. Volume 4. Bony fishes part 2 (Mugilidae to Carangidae). FAO, Rome.
Uyeno, T., K. Matsuura and E. Fujii (eds.) (1983) Fishes trawled off Suriname and French Guiana. Japan Marine Fishery Resource Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. 519 p.
Comments On Coryphaena hippurus