---
title: Mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus)
scientific_name: Coryphaena hippurus
common_name: Mahi-mahi
taxon: Dolphinfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-27T23:15:34.020Z
updated: 2026-08-12T10:40:19.273Z
tags: Mahi-mahi, Coryphaena hippurus, Dolphinfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/dolphinfishes/mahi-mahi
---

# Mahi-mahi (*Coryphaena hippurus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Dolphinfishes (*Coryphaena*)
- **Size:** up to 2 m
- **Weight:** 7 - 15 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-85 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Open water at the surface, under floating objects and weed lines
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- brilliant green-blue and gold body, deepest at the head and tapering to the tail
- males carry a near-vertical blunt forehead; females have a rounded one
- long dorsal fin running from above the eye to the tail
- length up to 2 m

Green-blue above, gold on the flanks, with a dorsal fin running from above the eye to the tail. Males grow a blunt vertical forehead that females never do, so the sexes are separable at a glance. Up to 2 m (6.5 ft), though most fish are half that.

It grows faster than almost any fish in the sea. A mahi-mahi hatches at a few millimeters and can reach a meter within its first year, spawns before it is one year old and rarely lives past four. Everything is built around that: it eats constantly, converts food at an extraordinary rate, and burns out young.

It lives under things. Floating weed, planks, buoys and any other debris gather small fish, and this species patrols them, which is why it is caught around drifting objects and why weed lines are the place to look. The habit also concentrates it where fisheries set drifting rafts.

The color goes out with the animal. A dying mahi-mahi flashes through blue, green and gold and then fades to a uniform dull yellow-gray within minutes - the pigment cells stop being driven by nerves that have stopped firing. Anyone who has seen one landed remembers it, and it is the reason the fish has a reputation for beauty that a photograph never quite carries.

## Also known as

- **English:** common dolphinfish, Common dolphin-fish, dolphin
- **Arabic:** Bakhti Bakhti, Anfalous, Lambouqa
- **Hebrew:** רעמתן כחלחל
- **French:** corphène commune, coryphène commune, cotyphène commune
- **Italian:** corifena, Pesce Pappagallo, lampuga
- **German:** gemeine Goldmakrele, Große Goldmakrele, grosse Goldmakrele
- **Spanish:** dorado, Dorado Común, dorado commún, lampuga
- **Greek:** Kynigos, Kynigòs, Kynygós
- **Turkish:** Yaladerma baliği, lambuga
- **Portuguese:** Dourado Comum, Peixe sol, Dalfinho
- **Dutch:** Dolfijnvis, Goudmakreel
- **Swedish:** guldmakrill
- **Polish:** Koryfena
- **Japanese:** シイラ, Shibr, Shiira
- **Russian:** Большая корифена, дорадо
- **DA:** Almindelig guldmakrel, Guldmakrel
- **FI:** Dolfiini
- **HR:** Lampuga
- **MLT:** Lampuka
- **NO:** Gullmakrell
- **RO:** Corifena
- **SL:** Delfinka
- **SQI:** peshku delfin, Korifene, korifena
- **SR:** Pucinka skakavica, Lampuga, Pucinka
- **TAH:** mahimahi
- **VI:** Cá duo

## Scientific synonyms

- *Coriphaena hippurus* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Corypaena hippurua* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Coryphaena argyrurus* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena chrysurus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Coryphaena dolfyn* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena dorado* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena fasciolata* Pallas, 1770
- *Coryphaena hipporus* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Coryphaena hyppurus* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Coryphaena immaculata* Agassiz, 1831
- *Coryphaena imperialis* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Coryphaena japonica* Temminck & Schlegel, 1845
- *Coryphaena margravii* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena nortoniana* Lowe, 1839
- *Coryphaena scomberoides* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena scomberoïdes* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena suerii* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena virgata* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Coryphaena vlamingii* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Lampugus siculus* Valenciennes, 1833
- *Lepimphis hippuroides* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Scomber pelagicus* Linnaeus, 1758

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/dolphinfishes/mahi-mahi)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*