Bernard Dupont, Frankreich
Info
The Indian Ladyfish is a bony fish from the genus Elopida , which currently contains only 7 species.
Elops machnata is a very slender and fast predator and also looks like an elongated giant herring with a bluish-gray back, silvery sides with a yellow tint, and pale yellow fins.
This species lives pelagically in shallow coastal waters and frequently enters estuaries and lagoons.
Juveniles use warm, turbid estuaries as nursery grounds.
Voracious predators, they feed on fish, squid and crustaceans.
The specific name is derived from the Arabic name "machnat", the common name for this species at the type locality of Jeddah (English, Jeddah), Saudi Arabia.
In Lake St. Lucia, South Africa, Elops machnata feeds primarily on the orangemouth anchovy (Thryssa vitrirostris), the herring Gilchristella aestuarius, and to a lesser extent the half-billed pike Hyporhamphus knysnaensis (Whitfield, 1977).
Synonyms:
Argentina machnata Forsskål, 1775
Elops capensis Smith, 1838-47
Elops indicus Swainson, 1839
Elops purpurascens Richardson, 1846
Elops machnata is a very slender and fast predator and also looks like an elongated giant herring with a bluish-gray back, silvery sides with a yellow tint, and pale yellow fins.
This species lives pelagically in shallow coastal waters and frequently enters estuaries and lagoons.
Juveniles use warm, turbid estuaries as nursery grounds.
Voracious predators, they feed on fish, squid and crustaceans.
The specific name is derived from the Arabic name "machnat", the common name for this species at the type locality of Jeddah (English, Jeddah), Saudi Arabia.
In Lake St. Lucia, South Africa, Elops machnata feeds primarily on the orangemouth anchovy (Thryssa vitrirostris), the herring Gilchristella aestuarius, and to a lesser extent the half-billed pike Hyporhamphus knysnaensis (Whitfield, 1977).
Synonyms:
Argentina machnata Forsskål, 1775
Elops capensis Smith, 1838-47
Elops indicus Swainson, 1839
Elops purpurascens Richardson, 1846
