Barracuda
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Barracuda
Barracuda
Fossil range: Early Eocene to Present |
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| Scientific classification |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia
| | Phylum: | Chordata
| | Class: | Actinopterygii
| | Order: | Perciformes
| | Family: | Sphyraenidae
| | Genus: | Sphyraena
Klein, 1778 |
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| Species |
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The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size (up to 6 feet (1.8 m) in length and up to 1 foot (30 cm) in width, for some species) and fearsome appearance. Its body is long, fairly compressed, and covered with small, smooth scales. It is a salt water fish, and is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. It is of the genus Sphyraena, the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae.
Appearance and physical description
Barracudas are elongate fish, pike-like in appearance, with large jaws and prominent sharp edged fang-like teeth. These are unequal in size and set in sockets in the jaws on the roof of the mouth. The head is quite large, pointed with the lower jaw in many species jutting out beyond the upper. The gill-covers have no spines and are covered with small scales. The two dorsal fins are widely separated, the anterior having five spines and the posterior having one spine and nine soft rays. The posterior dorsal fin equals the anal fin in size and is situated more or less above it. . The lateral line is prominent and extends straight from head to tail. The spinous dorsal fin is placed above the pelvics and normally retracted in a groove. The caudal fin is only moderately forked: its posterior edge is double curved. It is set at the end of a stout peduncle. The pectoral fins are placed low down on the sides. The barracuda swim bladder is large.
In general, a barracuda's coloration is dark green or gray above,silvery sided and chalky-white below. Coloration varies somewhat between species. For some species, there are irregular black spots or a row of darker cross-bars or on each side. The fins may be yellowish or dusky. Barracudas live primarily in oceans, but certain species such as the Great Barracuda can also be found thriving in brackish water.
Some barracuda species grow quite large, such as the European barracuda, barracouta or spet (S. sphyraena), found in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic; the great barracuda, picuda or becuna (S. picuda), ranging on the Atlantic coast of tropical America from North Carolina to Brazil and reaching Bermuda. Various other baracuda species are found around the world. Examples are the California Barracuda (S. argentea), extending from Puget Sound southwards to Cabo San Lucas; the Indian barracuda (S. jello) and the black-finned or Commerson's barracuda (S. commersoni), from the seas of India and the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago.
Behavior
The collective name for a group of barracudas is a battery. They are voracious opportunistic predators relying on surprise and short bursts of speed (up to 28 miles per hour (45 km/h)) to overtake their prey.
Adults of most barracuda species are more or less solitary in their habits, while young and half-grown fish frequently congregate in schools. Barracuda prey primarily on fish, sometimes as large as they are themselves by shearing off large chunks.
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