An adult is a silver plate on edge: deep, flattened almost to a blade, with a steep forehead and a body so compressed it disappears when it turns toward you. Up to 1.3 m (4.3 ft) in open water over sand.
The young are a different animal. Juveniles trail filaments from the dorsal and pelvic fins several times the length of the body, drifting near the surface, and the resemblance to a small jellyfish trailing tentacles is close enough that predators leave them alone. They lose the threads as they grow and settle to the bottom, and anyone who finds one assumes it is a rare species rather than a young common one.
Adults hunt over sand, taking crabs and small fish, often by nosing the bottom rather than chasing in open water - the body is built to turn rather than to sprint.
The name is misleading twice: it is neither African nor a pompano, but a jack found in warm water worldwide. Large individuals carry ciguatera in some regions, which is the usual tax on long-lived reef-associated predators.
The species. Alectis ciliaris (Bloch 1787) - with long lashes. ETYFish
- deep, extremely compressed silver body with a steep blunt forehead
- juveniles trail long thread-like filaments from the dorsal and pelvic fins
- adults lose the threads and look like a plain silver plate on edge
- length up to 1.3 m
Why it's threatened
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
