---
title: Indian Mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta)
scientific_name: Rastrelliger kanagurta
common_name: Indian Mackerel
taxon: Scombridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-30T22:06:41.461Z
updated: 2026-08-12T09:39:57.158Z
tags: Indian Mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta, Scombridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/indian-mackerel
---

# Indian Mackerel (*Rastrelliger kanagurta*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scombridae (*Scombridae*)
- **Size:** up to 36 cm
- **Depth:** 10-90 m
- **Diet:** Planktivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Open coastal water, in fast schools over reef edges and bays
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- slim silver-blue fish with dark wavy lines along the back and a golden spot behind the eye
- row of small finlets between the second dorsal fin and the tail
- swims with the mouth wide open when feeding, gill covers flared
- length up to 36 cm

A slim silver-blue mackerel to 36 cm (14 in), marked with fine dark wavy lines along the back and a golden spot behind the eye, with finlets running to the tail. Schools move fast and turn as one, and they are one of the few open-water fish a shore snorkeler regularly sees.

Feeding is filtration at speed. The fish swims through a plankton patch with the mouth wide open and the gill covers flared, straining the water through long comb-like gill rakers - so a mackerel school passing overhead has its mouths hanging open, which looks like a malfunction and is not.

The rakers change with the diet. Fish feeding on larger prey use them less and take individual items instead, and the same species can switch between filtering and picking depending on what the water is carrying.

It is one of the most important food fishes in the Indian Ocean, landed by the hundred thousand tonnes and eaten fresh, dried and salted from East Africa to Indonesia. On the reef its role is simpler: it converts plankton into a mid-sized fish, which is what everything larger is waiting for.

## Also known as

- **English:** Indian mackerel, Long-jawed Mackerel, Longjaw Mackerel
- **Arabic:** سمك الماكريل الهندي, ماكريل طويل الفك, ماكريل مدمي الخياشم
- **Hebrew:** מגובן הודי
- **French:** Maquereau de l'Indo-Pacifique, maquereau des Indes, Maquereau indien
- **Italian:** Sgombro striato
- **German:** Großmaul-Makrele
- **Spanish:** caballa de la India
- **Portuguese:** Bonito-anão-do-Indo-Pacífico, Cavala, Cavala-do-Indico
- **Dutch:** Grootbekmakreel
- **Czech:** makrelovka indická
- **Japanese:** グルクマ, Gurukuma
- **Chinese:** 媽鱟, 羽鰓鮐, 金帶花鯖
- **Russian:** Южноазиатская тропическая скумбрия
- **DA:** Indisk dværgmakrel
- **FI:** kitamakrilli
- **SIN:** කුම්බලාවා
- **TAM:** கானாங்கெளுத்தி
- **TH:** ปลาทูลัง, ปลาทูโม่ง, ปลาลัง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Rastelliger kanagurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Rasteltiger kanagurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Rastreliger kanagurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Rastrelliger canagurta* (Cuvier, 1829)
- *Rastrelliger chrysozonus* (Rüppell, 1836)
- *Rastrelliger kanagugurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Rastrelliger loo* (Lesson, 1829)
- *Rastrelliger microlepidotus* (Rüppell, 1836)
- *Rastrelliger serventyi* Whitley, 1944
- *Rastrelliger tanagurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Rastrellinger kanagurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Rastrilleger kanagurta* (Cuvier, 1816)
- *Scomber canagurta* Cuvier, 1829
- *Scomber chrysozonus* Rüppell, 1836
- *Scomber delphinalis* Cuvier, 1832
- *Scomber kanagurta* Cuvier, 1816
- *Scomber lepturus* Agassiz, 1874
- *Scomber loo* Lesson, 1829
- *Scomber microlepidotus* Rüppell, 1836
- *Scomber moluccensis* Bleeker, 1856
- *Scomber reani* Day, 1871
- *Scomber uam* Montrouzier, 1857

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scombridae/indian-mackerel)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*