This fish has a gizzard. Mullets swallow mouthfuls of the surface layer of the bottom - sediment, algal film, diatoms, whatever is bound up in it - and grind the load in a thick muscular stomach that works the way a bird's does, then run it through an intestine several times the length of their own body. It is the digestive system of a pigeon, in a fish.
That is why they are where they are. A mullet does not need prey, cover or coral; it needs soft bottom and shallow water, so schools of them work lagoons, reef flats, estuaries and coastal creeks, and this species will go 10 km up a river when it feels like it. Juveniles turn up in mangrove channels and flooded rice fields.
It is the only species in its genus. Ellochelon holds this fish and nothing else, so every squaretail mullet in the world is the same animal, from East Africa to the Tuamotus.
Olive-brown above and silvery on the flanks, with about six brown stripes formed by marks running along the scale rows, a yellow tail cut off square at the end, and a pectoral fin that is black on the upper half and yellow below. It reaches 63 cm (25 in), which is large for a mullet.
One note if anyone is thinking of eating one: there are reports of ciguatera poisoning from this species.
- olive-brown above, silvery flanks, with about six brown stripes running the length of the side
- yellow tail, cut off square, and yellowish fins with dusky edges
- pectoral fin black on its upper half and yellow below
- in schools over sand and among mangroves, not on the reef
- up to 63 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no threats to this species on a global scale.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
