Round scad

File:DecapterusPunctatus.jpg

The round scad is a cigar-shaped fish, with greenish coloration on top and white below. Their opercles usually have a small, black spot.Smith-Vaniz, W.F., 1986. Carangidae. p. 638–661. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. The round scad has nine spines on its dorsal fin and 30 to 34 soft rays. Their anal fins have only three spines and 26–29 soft rays. Round scad often have a yellow stripe running from the head to the caudal peduncle.{{cite web

|url=http://www.floridafishing.com/round-scad/

|title=FloridaFishing.com entry on Round scad

|accessdate=2008-10-07

}} The longest round scad recorded was 30 centimeters long,Berry, F.H. and W.F. Smith-Vaniz, 1978. Carangidae. In W. Fischer (ed.) FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. West Atlantic (Fishing Area 31). volume 1. FAO, Rome. [var. pag.] which is not far from the average estimated adult length of 12 inches (30.48 cm). It is claimed that the heaviest recorded specimen weighed 300 grams.Claro, R., 1994. Características generales de la ictiofauna. p. 55–70. In R. Claro (ed.) Ecología de los peces marinos de Cuba. Instituto de Oceanología Academia de Ciencias de Cuba and Centro de Investigaciones de Quintana Roo.

Known only from the Atlantic Ocean, the round scad is known from Nova Scotia in the northRobins, C.R. and G.C. Ray, 1986. A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p. to Rio de Janeiro in the south, including the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico on the western side. On the eastern side, they are known from Morocco in the north to South Africa in the south, including the islands of Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Ascension Island and St. Helena.Smith-Vaniz, W.F., J.C. Quéro and M. Desoutter, 1990. Carangidae. p. 729–755. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.

Round scad make their home in the ocean's Neritic zone and are also common near beaches.Cervigón, F., R. Cipriani, W. Fischer, L. Garibaldi, M. Hendrickx, A.J. Lemus, R. Márquez, J.M. Poutiers, G. Robaina and B. Rodriguez, 1992. Fichas FAO de identificación de especies para los fines de la pesca. Guía de campo de las especies comerciales marinas y de aquas salobres de la costa septentrional de Sur América. FAO, Rome. 513 p. Preparado con el financiamento de la Comisión de Comunidades Europeas y de NORAD. They are also known to gather near the bottom in large shoals.Bianchi, G., K.E. Carpenter, J.-P. Roux, F.J. Molloy, D. Boyer and H.J. Boyer, 1993. FAO species identification field guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of Namibia. FAO, Rome. 250 p. Round scad mostly eat copepods, but have also been known to eat pteropods, ostracods, and gastropod larvae.

File:Decapterus punctatus Gulf of Mexico.jpg| D. punctatus collected in the Gulf of Mexico.

File:Decapterus punctatus Brazil.png| Similar specimen collected near Santos, Brazil.

Round scad spawn year-round in waters well offshore.Smith, C.L., 1997. National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 720 p. Their eggs float in pelagic waters before hatching.Smith-Vaniz, W.F., 1986. Carangidae. p. 815–844. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO, Paris. vol. 2.

{{Reflist|2}}

• http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=994
• http://www.floridafishing.com/round-scad/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20081230074931/http://www.eol.org/taxa/17052477

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round scad

Category:Fish of the Atlantic Ocean

round scad

round scad