Sixfinger Threadfin

• The six threads that give it its name are pectoral fin rays that have become independent and work as sensory fingers feeling the bottom.
• It is a protandrous hermaphrodite: it matures first as a male, and the largest individuals are females.
• In ancient Hawaii eating it was reserved for the chiefs, and today it is one of the flagship species of the islands' aquaculture.
• It is a protandrous hermaphrodite: male first and female later, with an intermediate hermaphrodite phase.
• Spawning is governed by the phases of the moon.
• Its Hawaiian name, moi, means fish of kings; it was reserved for the nobility and today it is one of the flagship species of Hawaiian aquaculture.
• Coastal populations fell sharply over the last thirty or forty years, which has driven breeding and restocking programmes.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Shallow sandy and surf waters on Indo-Pacific coasts

Sexual maturity

They mature as males between 20 and 25 cm fork length and change into fertile females between 30 and 40 cm

Gestation / incubation

Spawning follows a lunar rhythm and takes place near the coast; the eggs measure about 0.75 mm across and carry a large oil globule

Sources consulted: FishBase (Froese & Pauly, eds.) · Lista Roja de la UICN (evaluación de 2023) · Motomura (2004), FAO · Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture · FishBase, Polydactylus sexfilis · FishBase, Polydactylus sexfilis (Ref. 9685) · FishBase (Ref. 9685) · manual de criadero del moi (Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture) · FishBase, Polydactylus sexfilis (Ref. 57343, 9685)

Best time: It lives between 1 and 50 m, normally 20 to 50, on sandy and rocky shores, river mouths and mangrove creeks. Its distribution is Indo-Pacific and is tied mainly to oceanic islands: Mauritius, the Seychelles, Kenya, the islands of the northern Indian Ocean, from Indonesia to the Ryukyus and Ogasawara, and east as far as Hawaii, French Polynesia and Pitcairn