Atlantic tripletail

Atlantic Tripletail

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Atlantic tripletail

The Atlantic tripletail, Lobotes surinamensis, is a warm water marine fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
that can grow to 90 cm long and weigh 18 kg. It is also known under the name flasher.

Atlantic tripletail is the only fish in the Lobotidae family that can be found in the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic tripletails are found from Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
and Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1350 kilometres south of Halifax Regional Municipality, Canada....
to Argentina

Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
, the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
, from Madeira Island to the Gulf of Guinea

Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is the part of the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Africa. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf. According to the International Hydrographic Organization, the Gulf's oceanic border is the rhumb line that runs from Cape Palmas in Liberia to Cape Lopez in Gabon ....
, the eastern Pacific from Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
to Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and the western Pacific from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
to Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu....
and Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Atlantic tripletail, Lobotes surinamensis, is a warm water marine fish

Fish

Geographical distribution

The Atlantic tripletail is the only fish in the Lobotidae family that can be found in the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic tripletails are found from Massachusetts

Massachusetts

Bermuda

Argentina

Mediterranean Sea

Gulf of Guinea

Costa Rica

Peru

Japan

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands , is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu....
and Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia....
. They are rarely found north of Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia....
. They are found on the Gulf Coast from April to October and then migrate to warmer waters during winter.

Habitat

Atlantic tripletails are found coastally in most, but not all, tropical and subtropical seas. They are semi-migratorial and pelagic. Normally solitary, they have been known to form schools. They can be found in bays, sounds, and estuaries during the summer. Juveniles are usually found swimming under patches of Sargassum
Sargassum

Sargassum is a genus of generally planktonic macroalgae in the order Fucales. It is named for the Atlantic Ocean's Sargasso Sea, which hosts a large amount of several species of Sargassum....
algae. Adults are usually found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an oceanic basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba....
but can also be found in passes, inlets, and bays near river mouths. The fishes are also often found in or near shipwrecks, beams or supports, jetties, and sea buoys. Larvae are usually found in waters that exceed temperatures of 84 °F (29 °C), greater than 30.3‰ salinity, and more than 230 feet (70 m) deep.

Biology

Distinctive features

Atlantic tripletails have scales that extend onto the dorsal

Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
, anal, and caudal fins and a head profile that concaves as the fish ages. It has a compressed but deep body with a triangle-shaped head. The eyes are small but the mouth is large. The bases of the dorsal and anal fins are scaled and the pectoral fins are shorter than the pelvic fins. The name "tripletail" is given because of the fish's three rounded fins: dorsal, caudal, and anal.

Coloration

Juvenile Atlantic tripletails are colored a mottled yellow, brown, and black. Adults are jet black. When it lies on its side at the surface, the tripletail is sometimes confused for a floating mangrove leaf. The juveniles have white pectoral fins and a white margin on the caudal fin. Adult tripletails have varied mottled color patterns which range from dark brown to reddish brown, often with a tint of gray.

Size, age, and growth

The Atlantic tripletail grows to 35 inches (89 cm) in length and weighs up to 41 pounds

Diet

Atlantic tripletails are opportunistic eaters. This means that they feed on a variety of things, mostly small finfish like gulf menhaden

Gulf menhaden

The Gulf menhaden is a small marine filter feeding fish belonging to the family Clupeidae. The range of Gulf menhaden encompasses the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico nearshore waters, with the exception of the extreme eastern Yucatan and western Cuba ....
, Atlantic bumpersss, and anchovies

Anchovy

The anchovies are a Family of small, common salt-water fish. There are about 140 species in 16 genera, found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans....
. They also feed on invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal species ? all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum vertebrate ....
s like blue crab

Blue crab

The blue crab is a crustacean found in the waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, which is the Maryland State Crustacean and the subject of an extensive fishery....
s and brown shrimp, as well as other benthic crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
s.

Reproduction

Spawning primarily occurs in the summer along both the Atlantic and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coasts, with peaks during the months of July and August. Large congregations of tripletail during the summer months in the inshore and nearshore waters of coastal Georgia suggest that this area is a critical estuarian spawning habitat for the species. Larval Atlantic tripletails go though four levels of development; preflexion, flexion, postflexion, and transformation. By the time the larvae reach 0.16 inches (4 mm), they have large eyes and a concave head. The larval forms of Atlantic tripletails resemble those of boarfish

Boarfish

Boarfish is the common name of two unrelated groups of fishes:*All fish of the family Caproidae are called boarfish.*Some fish of the family Pentacerotidae are called boarfish....
es, some jacks, spadefishes and bass.

Predators

Atlantic tripletails do not have many predators, but the main ones are shark

Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
s and larger teleosts.

Parasites

Parasites that affect the tripletail include the copepod

Copepod

Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every fresh water habitat . Many species are planktonic , but more are benthos , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests, bogs, springs, ephemeral ponds and puddle...
s Anuretes heckelii which affect the branchial cavities, Lernanthropus pupa which affect the gill filaments, and Scianophilus tenius.

Importance to humans

A few tons of Atlantic tripletails are fished commercially on the east and west coasts of Florida

Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
, and marketed fresh, frozen, or salted. They are mainly caught using haul seines, gill nets and line gear. They are common in driftnet catches of tuna

Tuna

Tuna are several species of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tunas are fast swimmers?they have been clocked at 70 km/h ?and include several species that are warm-blooded....
along the edge of the continental shelf. This fish is infrequently targeted by recreational fishers.

Conservation

The Atlantic tripletail is not listed as endangered or vulnerable with the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The IUCN is a global union of states, governmental agencies, and non-governmental organizations in a partnership that assesses the conservation status of species.