Bony fish · Elopiformes · Elopidae

Ladyfish

Elops saurus

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The bonefish is an elongated, silvery fish with a large terminal mouth, which forms schools in shallow coastal waters, lagoons and estuaries of the western Atlantic. It chases small fish and crustaceans and tolerates widely varying salinities. It is a very hard-fighting fish, prized in sport angling.

Size

50 cm – 1 m

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

OceanCarnivore Colonial Fish Ocean

40countries 102dive sites

Fun facts

Its larvae are leptocephali: transparent, flattened sheets like willow leaves, identical in appearance to those of eels, which reveals an ancient kinship between the two groups.
The leptocephalus grows, and then shrinks to half its size during the metamorphosis into a juvenile.
Its flesh, riddled with very fine bones, means it is valued far more as a sport fish than as food.
It belongs to the elopomorphs, the same ancient group as the eels and the tarpon, and like them it passes through a transparent, leaf-shaped leptocephalus larva.
That larva shrinks during metamorphosis: it becomes shorter before turning into a juvenile, something very uncommon among fishes.
It is a game fish prized for its leaps, but of little culinary value because its flesh is full of bones.
Juveniles use shallow lagoons and estuaries as nurseries, which makes it dependent on well-preserved coastal wetlands.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)
Habitat & environment: Coastal waters, lagoons and estuaries of the tropical western Atlantic

Sources consulted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elops_saurus