---
title: Golden Trevally (Gnathanodon speciosus)
scientific_name: Gnathanodon speciosus
common_name: Golden Trevally
taxon: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-05-20T16:48:06.642Z
updated: 2026-08-13T19:41:55.568Z
tags: Golden Trevally, Gnathanodon speciosus, Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/golden-trevally
---

# Golden Trevally (*Gnathanodon speciosus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos (*Carangidae*)
- **Size:** up to 120 cm
- **Weight:** up to 15 kg
- **Depth:** 0-80 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble beside reef; juveniles alongside large animals
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- juveniles bright gold with black bars, adults silver with the bars fading to spots
- rubbery protrusible mouth with no teeth in the adult
- juveniles swimming right at the nose or flank of a shark, ray or grouper
- length up to 120 cm

The small gold fish with black bars that swims at the nose of a shark, a ray or a big grouper, matching its every turn - that is this species as a juvenile, and it is the reason most divers have photographed one without knowing what it was.

The arrangement is a piggyback. Riding the bow wave of a large animal costs the little fish almost nothing in swimming effort, keeps it under an escort no predator wants to approach, and puts it exactly where prey is flushed out of the sand. It will do this with a nurse shark, a stingray, a turtle, and, given the chance, with a diver.

The adult is a different animal in every way. It loses the gold, the bars fade to a row of dark blotches on silver, and the mouth turns into a rubbery tube it can push out and retract. There are no teeth in it. The fish feeds by plowing into sand and sucking, working out shellfish and buried worms, and a feeding adult leaves a trail of craters.

It reaches 120 cm (4 ft), and large ones travel alone. Same species, two lives, and almost nothing in common between them.

## Also known as

- **English:** golden trevally, Golden Toothless Trevally, Banded Trevally
- **Arabic:** تريفلي ذهبي, زريدي ذهبي, Kefdar
- **French:** Carangue royale jaune, Carangue Royale, Carangue dorée
- **Italian:** Carango indopacifico
- **German:** Königsmakrele
- **Spanish:** jurel dorado, mojarra dorada
- **Portuguese:** Xaréu-dourado
- **Dutch:** Gouden Makreel
- **Czech:** kranas zlatý
- **Japanese:** コガネシマアジ, Koganeshimaaji
- **Chinese:** 無齒鰺, 黃鸝無齒鰺
- **Russian:** Золотой каранг
- **DA:** Gul hestemakrel
- **FA:** Guishe-talae
- **KAN:** ಗೊಂಡ್ಲು
- **MLG:** Kikao mavo
- **MSA:** Ikan puteh
- **TAH:** pa'aihere manini
- **TAM:** தேங்கா பாரை, வென்னை பாரை, Parai
- **TGL:** Talakitok
- **TH:** ปลาตะคองเหลือง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Caranx cives* De Vis, 1884
- *Caranx edentulus* Alleyne & MacLeay, 1877
- *Caranx panamensis* Gill, 1863
- *Caranx speciosus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Gnathandon speciosus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Gnathanodon specious* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Gnathodon speciosus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Gnathonodon speciosus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Scomber speciosus* Forsskål, 1775

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/golden-trevally)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*