Horse-eye jack

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horse-eye jack

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Carangidae
Genus:	Caranx
Species:	C. latus

Binomial name

Caranx latus
Agassiz, 1829

The Horse-eye Jack, Caranx latus, is a gamefish and minor commercial fish in the family Carangidae. It is also known as the Big-eye jack, and is similar in appearance to the Crevalle jack, although the head of a Horse-eye jack is not as blunt. Horse-eye jack are known to feed on smaller fish and on many invertebrates such as shrimp and crab.

1 Description
2 Habitat and range
3 Reaction to Divers
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Description

The Horse-eye jack, known for its proportionally large eyes, commonly has 8-9 spines on its dorsal fin and 20-22 dorsal rays. The anal fin contains 2-3 spines and 16-17 rays. The pectoral fins are without spots although they can may have a spot on their gill covers. Their scutes are dark and color and can be found on the tail of the fish. The caudal fin of a Horse-eye jack is bright yellow, while the Crevalle jack's caudal fin has a slightly darker yellow tinge. Young individuals have large, dark bars on their bodies.

Although adult Horse-eye jack commonly swim together in small to large schools either as one species or with Crevalle jack, they are known to swim in pairs with drastically different species such as Halichoeres radiatus, a type of wrasse.

[edit] Habitat and range

Horse-eye jack are commonly found in the subtropical Atlantic ocean from Bermuda and the northern Gulf of Mexico south to Rio de Janero. In the Eastern Atlantic, they are found from St. Paul's Rocks to Ascension Island and, rarely, the Gulf of Guinea. Horse-eye jack are pelagic. They can be found on reefs and off shore rigs. Juveniles can be found close to shore along sandy and muddy bottoms. Horse-eye jack are known to penetrate brackish water and can live in the mouths of some rivers. They are typically found in salt water up to 140 m in depth.

[edit] Reaction to Divers

Horse-eye jack are generally wary of scuba divers. They tend to move slowly away as divers approach. However, schools of Horse-eye jack have been known to crowd around divers, apparently attracted to the bubbles the diver exhales.