Description

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 118 - 132. Body extremely elongate, compressed and tapering to a point. Mouth large with a dermal process on the tip of each jaw. The lower hind margin of the gill cover convex. Lateral line running almost straight, closer to the ventral contour. Anal fins reduced to minute spinules buried in skin. Pelvic fins reduced to scale-like spines. Fresh specimens steely blue with metallic reflections, becoming silvery gray after death.

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Scombriformes

Family: Trichiuridae

Genus: Eupleurogrammus

Species: Eupleurogrammus glossodon (Bleeker, 1860)

Climate Zone

Location

• Indo-West Pacific: including the Persian Gulf, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

Biology

Inhabits coastal waters and often comes near the surface at night. Feeds on crustaceans, squid and fishes (species of Atherina, Stolephorus, Leiognathus, Eupleurogrammus, etc.) in Palk Bay, India. Caught mainly with shore seines, bag nets and bottom trawls in coastal waters down to 50 m depth in West Bengal to Madras, Palk Bay and Gulf of Myanmar. Marketed mostly dried, mixed with other trichiurids, also salted or fresh.

Habitat

benthopelagic

Conservation Status

Not Evaluated

Threat to Humans

Harmless