---
title: Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda)
scientific_name: Sphyraena barracuda
common_name: Great Barracuda
taxon: Barracudas
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-22T23:34:26.937Z
updated: 2026-08-11T21:17:26.500Z
tags: Great Barracuda, Sphyraena barracuda, Barracudas, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/barracudas/great-barracuda
---

# Great Barracuda (*Sphyraena barracuda*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Barracudas (*Sphyraenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 2 m
- **Depth:** 1-105 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Mid-water over reef and drop-offs, juveniles in seagrass and mangrove
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- long silver body with a lower jaw jutting past the upper
- irregular black blotches low on the flank
- teeth visible with the mouth closed
- hangs motionless in mid-water, often following divers

A silver bar of muscle hanging motionless in mid-water, usually 1 to 1.4 m (3 to 4.5 ft) and up to 2 m (6.5 ft), blue-gray above and chalk white below, with a scatter of irregular black blotches low on the flank and a lower jaw that juts past the upper. The mouth does not close over the teeth, which is why a barracuda looks like it is deciding something.

It hunts by ambush from a standing start. The body is built almost entirely for acceleration rather than cruising, and a strike run reaches around 40 km/h (25 mph) over a few body lengths - fast enough that a barracuda can cut a fish in half by hitting it. It then turns and eats the pieces.

The reputation for following divers is earned and harmless: a large barracuda will hold station a few meters away for an entire dive, watching. Bites are vanishingly rare and share one detail - something bright and metallic. A watch, a dangling gauge or a knife blade flashing in murky water reads as a flashing fish, and the strike is committed before the mistake is apparent.

The real risk from this species is on a plate. Large individuals accumulate ciguatoxin from the reef food chain, and the toxin survives cooking, freezing and drying; barracuda over a few kilos are a leading cause of ciguatera poisoning worldwide. Juveniles school in mangroves and shallow seagrass, and the huge slow-turning schools of smaller barracuda that divers photograph are a different species from the solitary giants.

## Also known as

- **English:** great barracuda, Commerson's Sea Pike, Great Barra Cuda
- **Arabic:** kadd
- **French:** Brochet de mer, Grand barracuda, Grande béchine
- **German:** amerikanischer pfeilhecht, picúa corsaria
- **Spanish:** barracuda, Picua Brava, Picuda Barracuda
- **Portuguese:** Barracuda Bicuda, Bacuda, Bicuda
- **Dutch:** snoek
- **Japanese:** オニカマス, Oni-kamasu, Onikamasu
- **Chinese:** 大魣, 巴拉庫答, 巴拉金梭魚
- **Russian:** Большая барракуда
- **MSA:** kucul, tenak
- **SOM:** zub-saalim

## Scientific synonyms

- *Agrioposphyraena barracuda* (Walbaum, 1792)
- *Esox barracuda* Walbaum, 1792
- *Sphyraena affinis* Rüppell, 1838
- *Sphyraena agam* Rüppell, 1838
- *Sphyraena baracuda* (Walbaum, 1792)
- *Sphyraena barracuda* (Walbaum, 1792)
- *Sphyraena becuna* Lacepède, 1803
- *Sphyraena commersoni* Cuvier, 1829
- *Sphyraena commersonii* Cuvier, 1829
- *Sphyraena dussumieri* Valenciennes, 1831
- *Sphyraena picuda* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Sphyraena sphyraena picuda* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Syphyraena barracuda* (Walbaum, 1792)

## Range

Gulf of Mexico, Kenya, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/barracudas/great-barracuda)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*