---
title: Bigeye Barracuda (Sphyraena forsteri)
scientific_name: Sphyraena forsteri
common_name: Bigeye Barracuda
taxon: Barracudas
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T13:54:51.582Z
updated: 2026-08-17T19:24:59.917Z
tags: Bigeye Barracuda, Sphyraena forsteri, Barracudas, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/barracudas/bigeye-barracuda
---

# Bigeye Barracuda (*Sphyraena forsteri*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Barracudas (*Sphyraenidae*)
- **Size:** 69 cm
- **Depth:** 1-274 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Lagoons and outer reef slopes, in dense daytime schools
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- slim silver body with a dark line along the back and no bars on the side
- very large eye, larger than in the other barracudas here
- usually in a dense stationary school by day
- up to 69 cm

A barracuda school hanging motionless over a slope is not hunting. It is waiting for dark.

This species spends daylight packed into a dense, slowly rotating shoal, sometimes hundreds strong, doing nothing at all, and breaks up at dusk to hunt alone or in small groups through the night. The eye is the giveaway and the reason: it is noticeably larger than in the other barracudas here, which is what a fish that does its serious work in the dark needs.

Telling the barracudas apart is worth ten seconds. This one is plain, slim and silver with a dark line along the back and no markings on the flank. The pickhandle carries thick dark blotches down the side and a yellow tail. The great barracuda, the big one, has scattered black smudges low on the body and a much heavier build. Size alone will mislead you, because a young great barracuda and an adult bigeye overlap.

It goes deep, recorded past two hundred and seventy meters, but the fish divers meet are in the top thirty.

On ciguatera: this species appears in poisoning reports, like most large reef predators here, and the risk rises with size.

## Also known as

- **English:** bigeye barracuda, Big-eye Sea-pyke, Black-spot Barracuda
- **Arabic:** باراكودا كبيرة العين, Aqam, Edwailmy
- **French:** Bécune de Forster
- **German:** Brustfleck-Barrakuda, Großaugen-Barrakuda
- **Spanish:** Baracuda
- **Portuguese:** Barracuda-olho-de-vidro
- **Czech:** soltýn Forsterův
- **Japanese:** オオメカマス, Omekamasu
- **Chinese:** 大眼金梭魚, 大眼魣, 巴拉庫答
- **Russian:** Белобрюхая барракуда
- **DA:** Storøjet barracuda
- **FIJ:** Dulutoga
- **MSA:** Kucul, Lambana, Pengaluan
- **SMO:** Sapatu
- **SOM:** Zub-saalim
- **SW:** Msusa
- **TGL:** Balyos, Batig, Tursilyo
- **TH:** ปลาน้ำดอกไม้ตาโต

## Scientific synonyms

- *Callosphyraena toxeuma* (Fowler, 1904)
- *Sphyraena forsteni* Cuvier, 1829
- *Sphyraena toxeuma* Fowler, 1904

## Range

Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/barracudas/bigeye-barracuda)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*