---
title: Frigate Tuna (Auxis thazard)
scientific_name: Auxis thazard
common_name: Frigate Tuna
taxon: Scombridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T17:52:34.455Z
updated: 2026-08-13T20:07:21.251Z
tags: Frigate Tuna, Auxis thazard, Scombridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/frigate-tuna
---

# Frigate Tuna (*Auxis thazard*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scombridae (*Scombridae*)
- **Size:** up to 65 cm
- **Depth:** 0-50 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open water, often just off the reef edge
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- small tuna with a wide gap between the two dorsal fins
- band of scales over the shoulder ending in a narrow strip along the flank
- dark oblique wavy markings on the back, above a scaleless silver side
- hunts in fast churning packs at the surface
- length up to 65 cm

A tuna the size of a forearm, 65 cm (26 in), hunting in packs that boil the surface for a minute and are gone. Small enough to be prey for everything larger and fast enough that most of it fails.

The scales are the field mark. A frigate tuna is naked except for a corselet of scales over the shoulder, which then narrows into a thin strip running back along the flank. Its near-twin, the bullet tuna, has the same corselet without the strip - and that is the difference, on two fish that are otherwise identical at a glance.

It eats small fish, squid and crustaceans, and it is itself the staple of nearly everything bigger. Where you see a pack of these working the surface, expect larger predators underneath and birds above; a frigate tuna school is a signal rather than a sight.

For divers it is an edge-of-visibility fish, a burst of silver against the blue over a drop-off. For fisheries across the Indian Ocean it is a major catch in its own right and the bait that catches everything else.

## Also known as

- **English:** frigate mackerel, Bullet Mackerel, frigate tuna
- **Arabic:** Deraiga, Sadah, Symfoglosa
- **French:** auxide
- **Italian:** Motella Mediterranea, Pizzu d'anatra, Scurmi veri
- **German:** unechter Bonito, Fregattmakrele
- **Spanish:** melva, Barrilete Negro, Barrileto Negro
- **Greek:** Kopani-kopanaki
- **Turkish:** Tombik baliği, Gobene
- **Portuguese:** Judeu-liso e judeu, Albacora, Albacora-bandolim
- **Dutch:** fregatmakreel
- **Swedish:** Auxid
- **Polish:** Tavrokefalos
- **Japanese:** Hirasôda, Soazo, Soda-gatsuo
- **Russian:** ауксида, Макрелевый тунец, обыкновенная макрель-фрегат
- **DA:** Auxide
- **NO:** Auxid
- **VI:** Cá ngừ chù

## Scientific synonyms

- *Auxis hira* Kishinouye, 1915
- *Auxis tapeinosoma* Bleeker, 1854
- *Auxis thazard thazard* (Lacepède, 1800)
- *Auxis thazzard* (Lacepède, 1800)
- *Scomber taso* Cuvier, 1832
- *Scomber thazard* Lacepède, 1800

## Range

Belgium, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Gulf of Mexico, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/frigate-tuna)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*