---
title: Rainbow Runner (Elagatis bipinnulata)
scientific_name: Elagatis bipinnulata
common_name: Rainbow Runner
taxon: Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-11T22:29:14.657Z
updated: 2026-08-12T11:27:52.719Z
tags: Rainbow Runner, Elagatis bipinnulata, Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/rainbow-runner
---

# Rainbow Runner (*Elagatis bipinnulata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Jacks, Amberjacks, Pompanos (*Carangidae*)
- **Size:** up to 1.8 m
- **Weight:** 46.2 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-150 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open water off the reef, often over drop-offs and around structure
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- slim torpedo body with two blue stripes running the length of the flank, gold between them
- small separate finlet behind the dorsal and anal fins - unique among the jacks here
- deeply forked tail on a narrow stalk
- length up to 1.8 m

A slim, fast, blue-and-gold fish to 1.8 m (6 ft), with two blue stripes down the flank and a gold band between them. The identification is at the back: a single small finlet stands behind both the dorsal and the anal fin, which no other jack here has.

Those finlets are borrowed from the tunas. They break up the water rolling off the fins in front of them, cutting drag at speed, and the fact that a jack and a tuna arrived at the same solution independently says how narrow the options are for a fish built to cross open water.

It hunts small fish and squid in fast-moving schools that appear off a drop-off, cross the blue and are gone. Rainbow runners often turn up alongside larger animals - sharks, mantas, whale sharks - taking whatever the larger animal disturbs and, in the case of sharks, occasionally rubbing against the skin to scrape off parasites.

It is a strong food fish and a game fish, and large individuals carry ciguatera in some regions, which is a common tax on reef-associated predators.

## Also known as

- **English:** rainbow runner, Rainbow Runner Fish, Small Rainbow Runner
- **French:** Carangue arc-en-ciel, Comete saumon, Comète saumon
- **Italian:** Seriolina
- **Spanish:** macarela salmón, Macarela Arco Iris, Cola Amarilla
- **Portuguese:** Fogueteiro-arco-iris
- **Polish:** Elegata
- **Japanese:** ツムブリ, Tsumuburi

## Scientific synonyms

- *Egalatis bipinnulatus* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Elagatis bipinnulatus* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Elegatis bipinnulata* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Elegatis bipinnulatus* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Elegatis bipunnulata* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Elegatus bipinnulatus* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Irex indicus* Valenciennes, 1862
- *Micropteryx bipinnulatus* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)
- *Seriola bipinnulata* Quoy & Gaimard, 1825
- *Seriolichthys bipinnulatus* (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/jacks-amberjacks-pompanos/rainbow-runner)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*