---
title: Longfin Trevally (Carangoides armatus)
scientific_name: Carangoides armatus
common_name: Longfin Trevally
taxon: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-10T17:47:43.959Z
updated: 2026-08-13T12:14:22.449Z
tags: Longfin Trevally, Carangoides armatus, Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/longfin-trevally
---

# Longfin Trevally (*Carangoides armatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos (*Carangidae*)
- **Size:** up to 57 cm
- **Weight:** 3.5 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-60 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coastal water over reef and sand, often in turbid conditions
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- deep silver body with filaments trailing from the front of the dorsal and anal fins
- faint dark bars in young fish, fading with age
- steep forehead and a small mouth for a jack
- length up to 57 cm

A deep-bodied silver jack to 57 cm (22 in) whose front dorsal and anal rays trail out into fine filaments - short in adults, long enough in young fish to make them look like a different species entirely.

Those threads are the family signature and their purpose is disputed. In young fish they probably break up the outline and imitate the trailing tentacles of a jellyfish, which is a common strategy in juveniles of this family; in adults they are largely vestigial and wear down.

It hunts small fish and crustaceans over reef and sand, often in slightly turbid coastal water where the reef-edge jacks are scarce, and it is more solitary than most of the family.

The genus is a taxonomic minefield: several of these deep-bodied trevallies have been shuffled between genera repeatedly and are separated by fin ray counts rather than anything visible in the water, so a photograph identified to species should be treated as a proposal rather than a verdict.

## Also known as

- **English:** Longfin Trevally
- **Arabic:** Bayad, Hammam
- **French:** Carangue Flamme
- **Spanish:** Jurel Sap-sap

## Scientific synonyms

- *Carangoides armatus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Carangoides ciliarius* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Caranx armatus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Caranx ciliaris* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Caranx ciliarius* Cuvier, 1833
- *Caranx pescadorensis* (Oshima, 1924)
- *Caranx schlegeli* Wakiya, 1924
- *Citula armata* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Citula armatus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Citula ciliaria* Rüppell, 1830
- *Citula pescadorensis* Oshima, 1924
- *Sciaena armata* Forsskål, 1775

---

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