Tille trevally
Encyclopedia
The tille trevally, Caranx tille (also known as the tille kingfish), is a species
of large marine
fish
classified in the jack family, Carangidae
. The tille trevally is distributed through the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific
region, ranging from South Africa
in the west to Fiji
, Japan
and Australia
in the east. The species is best distinguished by its rounded, strongly convex anterior profile, with other detailed anatomical features also useful. The tille trevally reaches a maximum length of 80 cm and a weight of 7.2 kg
. It is predominantly an inshore species, inhabiting coastal reef
and lagoon
environments, although has been recorded on deep offshore seamount
s. It is a predatory fish, taking various species of fish and crustaceans as prey, with little known of its reproductive cycle. It is of minor importance to fisheries throughout its range, taken by hook and line, gill nets and purse seines. The tille trevally is also considered a good game fish
, and an excellent table fish. The species acquired its scientific and common name
s from a local name used by Pondicherry fishermen; koton tille, which Georges Cuvier
then used when he named the species in 1833.
, one of a number of groups known as the jacks or trevallies. Caranx itself is part of the larger jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae
, a group of percoid
fishes in the order Perciformes
.
The species was first scientifically described by Georges Cuvier
in 1833 based on the holotype
specimen collected from Pondicherry, India
. He named the species Caranx tille, with the specific epithet derived from a local name used by fishermen for the species in Pondicherry; koton tille. Cuvier noted that Jean Baptiste Leschenault
, who collected the species, expressed doubt over the validity of the new species despite local fishermen identifying it as separate to other trevallies. The species was independently redescribed three times; the first by Pieter Bleeker
in 1851 as Caranx cynodon, the second time by Henry Weed Fowler
in 1904 as Caranx semisomnus and lastly as Caranx auriga by Alvin Seale in 1910. The latter name caused a specific homonym
with Caranx auriga, a name proposed for a different species by Charles Walter De Vis
in 1884. To rectify this William Ogilby
proposed the name Citula virga as a replacement, while Roxas and Martin proposed Caranx manilensis. It was soon recognised that all these names were synonymous with Caranx tille, and are now considered invalid junior synonyms under ICZN
rules.
body, with the dorsal profile more convex than the ventral profile, particularly anteriorly. This curvature gives the fish a discernibly 'blunt' head and steep snout, which is the most obvious identifying feature of the species. The dorsal fin
is in two distinct sections; the first consisting of 8 spine and the second of 1 spine and 20 to 22 soft rays. The anal fin consists of 2 anteriorly detached spines followed by 1 spine and 16 to 18 soft rays, while the pelvic fins have 1 spine followed by 18 soft rays. The lateral line
is moderately arched anteriorly, with 53 to 54 scales in this section, while the straight section contains 0 to 2 scales
and 33 to 42 strong scute
s. The breast is completely scaled. The species has well-developed adipose eyelids, while its dentition consists of an outer row of widely spaced canine
s and an inner band of villiform teeth in the upper jaw
, with a row of widely spaced conical teeth on the lower jaw. The tille trevally has 22 to 25 gill raker
s and 24 vertebrae.
The tille trevally is generally a uniformly pale olive to silvery grey colour all over as a juvenile, with the fins being pale to dusky. As the fish becomes larger, the head and upper body become a darker olive green to bluish grey colour, with the underside fading to a silvery white. The second dorsal fin is olive to black and lacks the white tip shown by Caranx papuensis, while the caudal and anal fins are yellow-olive to black. The species has a black spot on the upper opercular
margin.
and west Pacific Oceans
. In the western part of its range, the species distributed throughout South Africa
and Madagascar
waters north along the east Africa
n coast up to Tanzania
, with an apparent break in its range from Tanzania to India
. Its range continues from India east to South East Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago. The distribution extends south to northern Australia
, north to Japan
, and to Fiji
in the east.
The tille trevally is typically an inshore species, preferentially inhabiting coastal coral
and rocky reef
s, as well as moving through sandy bay
s and lagoon
s. The species is known to move with the tide in the Solomon Islands, entering inner lagoon regions through tidal corridors as the tide rises, and exiting back to the outer reef as the tide falls. This is thought to be due to the fish following small prey fish into the lagoon, where these small species spawn
. The species is also known to enter estuarine waters and the lower reaches of rivers. Despite being more prevalent in inshore waters, the tille trevally has also been recorded in far offshore
waters, living on seamount
s in West Mariana Ridge of the Pacific, where seamount peaks reach to 50 m from the surface. Here it occurs with other normally inshore fishes, and is one of the top predators
in this ecosystem
.
s as prey. Known hunting movements have been described above, with it moving into shallow lagoons to hunt small baitfish which shelter and spawn in the mangrove
s at high tide. Reproduction and growth parameters are entirely unknown.
The tille trevally is of minor importance in most fisheries throughout its range, although it is locally important in some areas. One such fishery is in Wewak
, Papua New Guinea
, where it and three lutjanids made up 50 % of the catch, with C. tille the predominant carangid in the fishery. It is taken by hook and line, gill nets, purse seines and various artisinal gear. According to Cuvier, the species is an excellent table fish, and is also considered a good gamefish in larger sizes.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of large marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
classified in the jack family, Carangidae
Carangidae
Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. The tille trevally is distributed through the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific
Indo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
region, ranging from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in the west to Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, 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...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in the east. The species is best distinguished by its rounded, strongly convex anterior profile, with other detailed anatomical features also useful. The tille trevally reaches a maximum length of 80 cm and a weight of 7.2 kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
. It is predominantly an inshore species, inhabiting coastal reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
and lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
environments, although has been recorded on deep offshore seamount
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
s. It is a predatory fish, taking various species of fish and crustaceans as prey, with little known of its reproductive cycle. It is of minor importance to fisheries throughout its range, taken by hook and line, gill nets and purse seines. The tille trevally is also considered a good game fish
Game fish
Game fish are fish pursued for sport by recreational anglers. They can be freshwater or marine fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, though increasingly anglers practise catch and release to improve fish populations. Some game fish are also targeted commercially, particularly...
, and an excellent table fish. The species acquired its scientific and common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
s from a local name used by Pondicherry fishermen; koton tille, which Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
then used when he named the species in 1833.
Taxonomy and naming
The tille trevally is classified within the genus CaranxCaranx
Caranx is a genus of tropical to subtropical marine fish in the jack family Carangidae, commonly known as jacks, trevallies and kingfishes. They are moderate to large sized, deep bodied fishes which are distinguished from other carangid genera by specific gill raker, fin ray and dentition...
, one of a number of groups known as the jacks or trevallies. Caranx itself is part of the larger jack and horse mackerel family Carangidae
Carangidae
Carangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, a group of percoid
Percoidei
Percoidei is one of eighteen suborders of bony fish in the order Perciformes. Many commercially harvested fish species are contained in this suborder, including the snappers, jacks, whitings, groupers, bass, perches and porgies.-Divisions:...
fishes in the order Perciformes
Perciformes
The Perciformes, also called the Percomorphi or Acanthopteri, is one of the largest orders of vertebrates, containing about 40% of all bony fish. Perciformes means perch-like. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish and comprise over 7,000 species found in almost all aquatic environments...
.
The species was first scientifically described by Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
in 1833 based on the holotype
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
specimen collected from Pondicherry, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He named the species Caranx tille, with the specific epithet derived from a local name used by fishermen for the species in Pondicherry; koton tille. Cuvier noted that Jean Baptiste Leschenault
Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour
Jean Baptiste Louis Claude Theodore Leschenault de la Tour was a French botanist and ornithologist.Leschenault de la Tour was chief botanist on Nicolas Baudin's expedition to Australia between 1800 and 1803...
, who collected the species, expressed doubt over the validity of the new species despite local fishermen identifying it as separate to other trevallies. The species was independently redescribed three times; the first by Pieter Bleeker
Pieter Bleeker
Pieter Bleeker was a Dutch medical doctor and ichthyologist, famous for his work on the fishes of East Asia – Atlas Ichthyologique des Orientales Neerlandaises – which was published 1862–1877....
in 1851 as Caranx cynodon, the second time by Henry Weed Fowler
Henry Weed Fowler
Henry Weed Fowler was an American zoologist born in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania.He studied at Stanford University under David Starr Jordan...
in 1904 as Caranx semisomnus and lastly as Caranx auriga by Alvin Seale in 1910. The latter name caused a specific homonym
Homonym
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...
with Caranx auriga, a name proposed for a different species by Charles Walter De Vis
Charles Walter De Vis
Charles Walter de Vis , known as Devis before about 1882, was an English zoologist and ornithologist...
in 1884. To rectify this William Ogilby
William Ogilby
William Ogilby was an Irish barrister and naturalist.Ogilby was honorary secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1839 to 1846....
proposed the name Citula virga as a replacement, while Roxas and Martin proposed Caranx manilensis. It was soon recognised that all these names were synonymous with Caranx tille, and are now considered invalid junior synonyms under ICZN
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...
rules.
Description
The tille trevally is a large species, growing to a maximum known length of 80 cm and a recorded weight of 7.3 kg. It is similar in general appearance to most jacks in the genus, having a compressed, oblongRectangle
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
body, with the dorsal profile more convex than the ventral profile, particularly anteriorly. This curvature gives the fish a discernibly 'blunt' head and steep snout, which is the most obvious identifying feature of the species. The dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
is in two distinct sections; the first consisting of 8 spine and the second of 1 spine and 20 to 22 soft rays. The anal fin consists of 2 anteriorly detached spines followed by 1 spine and 16 to 18 soft rays, while the pelvic fins have 1 spine followed by 18 soft rays. The lateral line
Lateral line
The lateral line is a sense organ in aquatic organisms , used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. Lateral lines are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail...
is moderately arched anteriorly, with 53 to 54 scales in this section, while the straight section contains 0 to 2 scales
Scale (zoology)
In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration...
and 33 to 42 strong scute
Scute
A scute or scutum is a bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, the feet of some birds or the anterior portion of the mesonotum in insects.-Properties:...
s. The breast is completely scaled. The species has well-developed adipose eyelids, while its dentition consists of an outer row of widely spaced canine
Canine tooth
In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed teeth...
s and an inner band of villiform teeth in the upper jaw
Jaw
The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term jaws is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serving to open and close it and is part of the body plan of...
, with a row of widely spaced conical teeth on the lower jaw. The tille trevally has 22 to 25 gill raker
Gill raker
Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch and are involved with filter feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the bony part of the gill. Rakers are usually present in two rows, projecting from both the...
s and 24 vertebrae.
The tille trevally is generally a uniformly pale olive to silvery grey colour all over as a juvenile, with the fins being pale to dusky. As the fish becomes larger, the head and upper body become a darker olive green to bluish grey colour, with the underside fading to a silvery white. The second dorsal fin is olive to black and lacks the white tip shown by Caranx papuensis, while the caudal and anal fins are yellow-olive to black. The species has a black spot on the upper opercular
Operculum (fish)
The operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills. In most fish, the rear edge of the operculum roughly marks the division between the head and the body....
margin.
Distribution and habitat
The tille trevally is distributed through the tropical and subtropical waters of the IndianIndian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and west Pacific Oceans
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. In the western part of its range, the species distributed throughout South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
waters north along the east Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
n coast up to Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, with an apparent break in its range from Tanzania to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Its range continues from India east to South East Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago. The distribution extends south to northern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, north to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, 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...
, and to Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
in the east.
The tille trevally is typically an inshore species, preferentially inhabiting coastal coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
and rocky reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
s, as well as moving through sandy bay
Bay
A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...
s and lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
s. The species is known to move with the tide in the Solomon Islands, entering inner lagoon regions through tidal corridors as the tide rises, and exiting back to the outer reef as the tide falls. This is thought to be due to the fish following small prey fish into the lagoon, where these small species spawn
Spawn (biology)
Spawn refers to the eggs and sperm released or deposited, usually into water, by aquatic animals. As a verb, spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, also called spawning...
. The species is also known to enter estuarine waters and the lower reaches of rivers. Despite being more prevalent in inshore waters, the tille trevally has also been recorded in far offshore
Shore
A shore or shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In Physical Oceanography a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past and present, while the beach is at the edge of the shore,...
waters, living on seamount
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
s in West Mariana Ridge of the Pacific, where seamount peaks reach to 50 m from the surface. Here it occurs with other normally inshore fishes, and is one of the top predators
Predatory fish
Predatory fish are fish that predate upon other fish or animals. Some predatory fish include perch, muskie , pike, walleye, salmon.Levels of large predatory fish in the global oceans are estimated to be about 10% of their pre-industrial levels...
in this ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
.
Biology and fishery
The tille trevally's biology is poorly understood, with only basic aspects of its diet known. It is a predatory species which takes other fish and various crustaceanCrustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s as prey. Known hunting movements have been described above, with it moving into shallow lagoons to hunt small baitfish which shelter and spawn in the mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s at high tide. Reproduction and growth parameters are entirely unknown.
The tille trevally is of minor importance in most fisheries throughout its range, although it is locally important in some areas. One such fishery is in Wewak
Wewak
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak....
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, where it and three lutjanids made up 50 % of the catch, with C. tille the predominant carangid in the fishery. It is taken by hook and line, gill nets, purse seines and various artisinal gear. According to Cuvier, the species is an excellent table fish, and is also considered a good gamefish in larger sizes.