---
title: Longfin Spadefish (Platax teira)
scientific_name: Platax teira
common_name: Longfin Spadefish
taxon: Spadefishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-24T11:59:10.512Z
updated: 2026-08-13T12:44:11.109Z
tags: Longfin Spadefish, Platax teira, Spadefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/spadefishes/longfin-spadefish
---

# Longfin Spadefish (*Platax teira*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Spadefishes (*Ephippidae*)
- **Size:** up to 70 cm
- **Depth:** 3-30 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Wrecks, drop-offs and open water, often in groups under structure
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- very deep, flattened silver disc with two dark bars, one through the eye
- juveniles have hugely extended dorsal and anal fins, taller than the body
- hangs almost motionless beside a wreck or under an overhang
- length up to 70 cm

A silver disc on edge, 70 cm (28 in) tall, with two dark bars and a habit of hanging motionless beside a wreck in a loose group. Adults are calm to the point of curiosity and will follow a diver.

The young are a different animal. A juvenile has dorsal and anal fins drawn out far above and below the body, so the fish is much taller than it is long, and it hangs at an angle among mangrove roots or drifting weed passing for a dead leaf - dark brown, motionless, drifting with the surge. The fins shrink as it grows.

Adults feed on jellyfish, plankton, algae and small invertebrates, and they are one of the few fish that will take on stinging jellyfish routinely, biting the bell rather than the arms.

They aggregate around structure - wrecks, mooring blocks, isolated pinnacles - which is why the same wreck holds a school of batfish year after year, and why the species is one of the easiest large fish here to photograph well.

## Also known as

- **English:** longfin baitfish, Longfin Batfish, Blunthead Batfish
- **Arabic:** سم المجرفة طويل الزعنفة, سمك الخفاش ذيل الزعنفة, سمك الخفاش طويل الزعنفة
- **French:** Platax à longues nageoires
- **Italian:** Pesce pipistrello a coda lunga
- **German:** Langflossen-Fledermausfisch
- **Spanish:** Paguala Común
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-bumerangue-bandeira
- **Czech:** netopýrník dlouhoploutvý
- **Japanese:** ツバメウオ, Tsubameuo
- **Chinese:** 尖翅燕魚
- **Russian:** Длинноперый платакс
- **DA:** Langfinnet flagermusfisk
- **FI:** raitalepakkokala
- **FIJ:** Lati ni daveta
- **KO:** 깃털제비활치
- **TGL:** Bunak
- **TH:** ปลาหูช้างครีบยาว

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chaetodon teira* Forsskål, 1775
- *Platax teria* Forsskål, 1775
- *Platax terra* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Platax tiera* (Forsskål, 1775)

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, South Africa, Tanzania

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