Ken Schultz's Field Guide to Saltwater Fish - Macaw Pets store

The African pompano is the largest and most widespread
member of the Carangidae family of jacks and pompano,
surrounded by a great deal of confusion because until
recently, adults and young were classified as entirely different
species. A strong fighter and an excellent light-tackle
gamefish, it is a superb food fish and is marketed fresh or
salted/dried.
Identification. The most striking characteristic of the
African pompano is the four to six elongated, threadlike filaments
that extend from the front part of the second dorsal
and the anal fins. These filaments tend to disappear or
erode as the fish grows.
The body shape of the African pompano changes as it
grows; starting out short and deep, it becomes more elongated
by the time the fish is 14 inches long, and the forehead
becomes steeper and blunter. In both young and
adult fish, their bodies are strongly compressed, and the
rear halves of their body are triangular. The lateral line
arches smoothly but steeply above the pectoral fins and has
24 to 38 relatively weak scutes in the straight portion and
120 to 140 scales. Shiny and silvery on the whole, a larger
fish may be light bluish-green on the back; on all fish, there
may be dark blotches on the operculums on the top part of
the caudal peduncles, as well as on the front part of the second
dorsal and the anal fins. A young African pompano has
five to six ventral bars.
Size. This species is known to attain a length of 42 inches
and can grow to 60 pounds; the all-tackle world record is a
50-pound, 8-ounce Florida fish. Twenty- to 30-pounders
are common in South Florida.
Food. African pompano feed on sedentary or slow-moving
crustaceans, on small crabs, and occasionally on small fish.
Pompano, African
Alectis ciliaris
OTHER NAMES
Cuban jack, Atlantic
threadfin, pennantfish,
threadfin mirrorfish,
trevally; Afrikaans: draadvin-spie
lvis; Arabic: bambo,
tailar; French: aile ronde,
carangue, cordonnier;
Hawaiian: papio, ulua;
Malay/Indonesian: cermin,
ebek, rambai landeh;
Portuguese: xaréu africano;
Spanish: caballa, chicuaca,
elechudo, jurel de pluma,
paja blanco, palometa,
pampano, sol, zapatero.
Distribution. African pompano
occur in the western
Atlantic from Massachusetts
and Bermuda to Brazil, as
well as throughout the
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf
of Mexico. In the eastern
Pacific, they range from
Mexico to Peru.
Habitat. Inhabiting waters
up to 300 feet deep, African
pompano often prefer to be
near the bottom over rocky
reefs and around wrecks.
They may form small, somewhat
polarized, schools,
although they are usually
solitary in the adult stage.
Pompano, African 147