Trichiurus lepturus, Largehead hairtail : fisheries, gamefish
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Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758

Largehead hairtail
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Trichiurus lepturus   AquaMaps   Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Image of Trichiurus lepturus (Largehead hairtail)
Trichiurus lepturus
Picture by Osmany, H.B.

Common names from other countries

Poisson-sabre commun, Pez sable, Рыба-сабля, ... more

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Scombriformes (Mackerels) > Trichiuridae (Cutlassfishes) > Trichiurinae
Etymology: Trichiurus: Greek, thrix = hair + Greek, oura = tail (Ref. 45335); lepturus: Specific name from Greek 'lepturus', for its thin or slender tail.
More on author: Linnaeus.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Marine; brackish; benthopelagic; amphidromous (Ref. 51243); depth range 0 - 589 m (Ref. 58018), usually 100 - 350 m (Ref. 35388). Subtropical; 49°N - 54°S, 114°W - 180°E (Ref. 54931)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Circumtropical and Circumtemperate: including Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, Red Sea, Persian Gulf.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 50.6, range 30 - 99 cm
Max length : 234 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 26340); common length : 100.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 26999); max. published weight: 5.0 kg (Ref. )

Short description Identification keys | Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 3; Dorsal soft rays (total): 130 - 135; Anal soft rays: 100 - 105. Body extremely elongate, compressed and tapering to a point. Mouth large with a dermal process at the tip of each jaw. Dorsal fin relatively high; anal fin reduced to minute spinules usually embedded in the skin or slightly breaking through; anterior margin of pectoral fin spine not serrated. Pelvic and caudal fins absent. Lateral line beginning at the upper margin of the gill cover, running oblique to behind the tip of the pectoral fins, then straight close to the ventral contour. Fresh specimens steely blue with silvery reflections, becoming uniformly silvery gray sometime after death (Ref. 6181).
Body shape (shape guide): eel-like; Cross section: compressed.

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Generally over muddy bottoms of shallow coastal waters (Ref. 9351). Often enter estuaries (Ref. 9351). Juveniles feed mostly on euphausiids, small pelagic planktonic crustaceans and small fishes; adults feed mainly on fishes and occasionally on squids and crustaceans (Ref. 6181). Adults and juveniles have opposing complementary vertical diurnal feeding migration. Large adults usually feed near the surface during the daytime and migrate to the bottom at night. Juveniles and small adults form schools 100 m above the bottom during the daytime and form loose feeding aggregations at night near the surface. Pelagic eggs (Ref. 35388) and larvae (Ref. 6768). Max weight of 1.5 kg given in Ref. 28023 seems too low. The current angling world record was caught in Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay and weighed 3.69 kg. Commercial fisherman have caught fish of up to 5 kg (Capt. Eduardo Baumeier, pers. Comm., 2001). Marketed salted or dried and also frozen (Ref. 9351). Excellent taste when fried or grilled; also for sashimi when fresh.

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Parin, Nikolay V. | Collaborators

Nakamura, I. and N.V. Parin, 1993. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 15. Snake mackerels and cutlassfishes of the world (families Gempylidae and Trichiuridae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the snake mackerels, snoeks, escolars, gemfishes, sackfishes, domine, oilfish, cutlassfishes,. scabbardfishes, hairtails, and frostfishes known to date. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(15):136 p. (Ref. 6181)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2025-1)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 29 January 2013

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

  Harmless





Human uses

Fisheries: highly commercial; gamefish: yes
FAO - Fisheries: landings, species profile; Publication: search | FIRMS - Stock assessments | FishSource | Sea Around Us

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items (preys)
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators
Ecology
Ecology
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Population dynamics
Growth parameters
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
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Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Maturity/Gills rel.
Fecundity
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Eggs
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Taxonomy
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References
References

Tools

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Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes: genus, species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Fisheries: landings, species profile; Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GloBI | GoMexSI (interaction data) | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | National databases | OceanAdapt | OneZoom | Open Tree of Life | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | RFE Identification | Socotra Atlas | TreeBase | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go, Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoobank | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 123201): 10.1 - 23.2, mean 15.2 °C (based on 1178 cells).
Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804):  PD50 = 0.5010   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].
Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00035 (0.00029 - 0.00042), b=3.15 (3.10 - 3.20), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this species (Ref. 93245).
Trophic level (Ref. 69278):  4.4   ±0.4 se; based on diet studies.
Generation time: 2.9 (1.3 - 4.2) years. Estimated as median ln(3)/K based on 15 growth studies.
Resilience (Ref. 120179):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (K=0.25-0.29; tm=2-3.7; tmax=15; Fec=21,672).
Prior r = 0.21, 95% CL = 0.14 - 0.32, Based on 3 full stock assessments.
Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153):  Moderate to high vulnerability (52 of 100). 🛈
Climate Vulnerability (Ref. 125649):  High vulnerability (62 of 100). 🛈
Price category (Ref. 80766):   High.
Nutrients (Ref. 124155):  Calcium = 100 [30, 212] mg/100g; Iron = 1.23 [0.36, 2.72] mg/100g; Protein = 19.4 [17.7, 21.0] %; Omega3 = 0.256 [0.133, 0.574] g/100g; Selenium = 173 [63, 488] μg/100g; VitaminA = 3.29 [0.71, 21.47] μg/100g; Zinc = 0.855 [0.444, 1.405] mg/100g (wet weight); based on nutrient studies.