Round scad facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Round scad |
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The round scad (also called the cigar minnow) is a type of fish. Its scientific name is Decapterus punctatus. It belongs to the Carangidae family, which includes other fish like jacks and pompano. A French scientist named Georges Cuvier first described this fish in 1829. Even though people can eat round scad, it's often caught to be used as bait for other fish.
What the Round Scad Looks Like
The round scad has a body shaped like a cigar. It is greenish on top and white underneath. You can often see a small, black spot on its opercles, which are the covers over its gills.
This fish has nine spines on its dorsal fin (the fin on its back). It also has 30 to 34 soft rays on this fin. Its anal fin (the fin on its belly) has three spines and 26 to 29 soft rays. Many round scad have a yellow stripe that runs from their head all the way to their tail base, called the caudal peduncle.
The longest round scad ever found was about 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. The heaviest one recorded weighed about 300 grams.
Where Round Scad Live and What They Eat
Round scad are found only in the Atlantic Ocean. In the west, they live from Nova Scotia in the north down to Rio de Janeiro in the south. This area includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, they are found from Morocco in the north to South Africa in the south. They also live around islands like Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Ascension Island, and St. Helena.
These fish prefer to live in the Neritic zone, which is the part of the ocean over the continental shelf. This means they are often found in waters that are not too deep, close to land. They are also common near beaches. Round scad often gather in large groups called shoals near the ocean bottom.
Their main food source is tiny sea creatures called copepods. But they also eat other small animals like pteropods, ostracods, and the young forms (larvae) of gastropods (like snails).
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D. punctatus collected in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Similar specimen collected near Santos, Brazil.
Reproduction
Round scad lay their eggs all year long in waters far from the coast. Their eggs float in the open ocean, which is called pelagic water, before they hatch into baby fish.
