--- title: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos (Carangidae) scientific_name: Carangidae common_name: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos rank: Family published: 2024-11-19T18:41:51.573Z updated: 2026-08-23T21:28:59.899Z tags: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos, Carangidae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos --- # Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos (*Carangidae*) ## Quick facts - **Rank:** Family - **Scientific name:** Carangidae - **Body shape:** Torpedo - Streamlined and muscular, built for open-water speed - jacks, tunas, barracudas. - **Species listed here:** 30 ## How to recognise this group - streamlined, often compressed body - deeply forked tail fin - two dorsal fins, the first with short spines - lateral line often armed with bony scutes near the tail - generally silvery, grey, or brassy coloration Almost every large fish on a reef has an address. A jack does not. This family belongs to the open water off the edge, and it comes in over the coral the way weather does: a bar of silver at the limit of visibility that is suddenly overhead, moving, and then gone toward the drop-off. Nothing else that size on the reef is so obviously a visitor. The family gave its name to the way it swims. In carangiform swimming the front two thirds of the fish stays rigid and only the rear section and the tail move, which costs far less than the whole-body wriggle a reef fish uses and holds a line at speed. The tail stalk is narrow and stiffened along each side by a row of bony scutes, and the tail itself is a deep, stiff crescent, a propeller rather than a paddle. Tuna arrived at the same answer in a different family. The hunting is timed. Trevally work the reef edge hardest in the twenty minutes around dusk, and again at first light, when the day fish are dropping into the coral, the animals that feed at night are not out yet, and the light has gone too poor for a small fish to see a large one coming while it is still good enough for the large one to see it. Groups split a school of fusiliers against the surface or against the reef wall, where a fish that turns has nowhere to turn to. Thirty species are listed here, from scads the length of a hand to the giant trevally at 1.7 m (5.5 ft). If the reef in front of you goes quiet and the small fish compress into a ball against the coral, look out into the blue rather than at the reef. ## Species (30) - [African Pompano (Alectis ciliaris)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/african-pompano) - [Arabian Scad (Trachurus indicus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/arabian-scad) - [Barcheek Trevally (Carangoides plagiotaenia)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/barcheek-trevally) - [Bigeye Scad (Selar crumenophthalmus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/bigeye-scad) - [Bigeye Trevally (Caranx sexfasciatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/bigeye-trevally) - [Black Pomfret (Parastromateus niger)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/black-pomfret) - [Blackbanded Jack (Seriolina nigrofasciata)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/blackbanded-jack) - [Blacktip Jack (Caranx heberi)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/blacktip-jack) - [Blue Trevally (Carangoides ferdau)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/blue-trevally) - [Bluefin Trevally (Caranx melampygus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/bluefin-trevally) - [Coastal Trevally (Carangoides coeruleopinnatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/coastal-trevally) - [Doublespotted Queenfish (Scomberoides lysan)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/doublespotted-queenfish) - [Giant Trevally (Caranx ignobilis)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/giant-trevally) - [Golden Trevally (Gnathanodon speciosus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/golden-trevally) - [Greater Amberjack (Seriola dumerili)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/greater-amberjack) - [Herring Scad (Alepes vari)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/herring-scad) - [Indian Threadfish (Alectis indica)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/indian-threadfish) - [Longfin Trevally (Carangoides armatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/longfin-trevally) - [Needlescaled Queenfish (Scomberoides tol)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/needlescaled-queenfish) - [Orangespotted Trevally (Carangoides bajad)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/orangespotted-trevally) - [Pilot fish (Naucrates ductor)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/pilot-fish) - [Rainbow Runner (Elagatis bipinnulata)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/rainbow-runner) - [Shortfin Scad (Decapterus macrosoma)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/shortfin-scad) - [Shrimp Scad (Alepes djedaba)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/shrimp-scad) - [Smallspotted Dart (Trachinotus baillonii)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/smallspotted-dart) - [Snubnose Pompano (Trachinotus blochii)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/snubnose-pompano) - [Talang Queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/talang-queenfish) - [Torpedo Scad (Megalaspis cordyla)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/torpedo-scad) - [Yellowspotted Trevally (Carangoides fulvoguttatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/yellowspotted-trevally) - [Yellowtail Scad (Atule mate)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/yellowtail-scad) --- *Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos)* *Updated: August 23, 2026*