Crevalle jack
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| Caranx hippos (Linnaeus, 1766) |
Crevalle jack, Caranx hippos, is a fast, saltwater fish that can be found in inland waters along the shoreline of the western Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to Uruguay and the eastern Atlantic from Portugal to Angola. It has a large rounded head with large eyes and a dark silvery body that can show hints of blue-green to green-gold. They grow to more than three feet in length, though more commonly they are between one and two and a half feet long. The fish usually weighs between three and five pounds, but a 51 pound Crevalle Jack was taken off the coast of Florida. Crevalle jacks can be poisonous to eat due to the threat of ciguatera poisoning, but they are prized as a game fish.
Crevalle jacks spawn offshore from early March to early September. When young, they run in large schools, but become solitary as they get older. They are preyed upon by many surface feeding carnivores, including finfish, such as the striped marlin, and seabirds. Crevalle jacks feed during the day and eat a variety of fish and invertebrates. Other common names for Caranx hippos include common jack, blacktailed trevally, cabalo, green jack, horse mackerel, horse-eye jack, kingfish, and trevally.
[edit] References
- "Caranx hippos". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. 06 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Caranx hippos (TSN 168609). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 13 June 2006.
