• Home
• About Fishes
• Fish Department
• Collections
• What's new
• Find a fish
  • Species name
  • Common name
  • Type of fish
  • Glossary
• Identify a fish
• Student stuff
• FAQs
• Fish movies
• Fish links

Find a Fish

Escolar
Lepidocybium flavobrunneum Smith, 1849

An Escolar caught by commercial fishers off Eden, New South Wales. View larger image.

Head of the above fish showing the large mouth and teeth. View larger image.

The Escolar has a fusiform (tapering towards both ends) body, with four to six finlets behind the second dorsal and anal fins. It has a strong keel on the side of the caudal peduncle, which is flanked by a smaller keel above and below. Its upper jaw has two pairs of fangs anteriorly.

This species is dark brown becoming almost black as it ages. It grows to over 2m in length. Its diet includes squids, crustaceans and other fishes.

The Escolar is found throughout tropical and temperate seas worldwide. In Australia it is recorded from southern Queensland around the south of the continent and up the west coast to the north-west Shelf of Western Australia.

Further reading

1. Nakamura, I & N.V. Parin. 1993. Snake Mackerels and Cutlassfishes of the World. An Annotated and Illustrated Catalogue of the Snake Mackerels, Snoeks, Escolars, Gemfishes, Sackfishes, Domine, Oilfish, Cutlassfishes, Scabbardfishes, Hairtails and Frostfishes Known to Date. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 15. FAO. Rome. Pp. 136.
2. Yearsley, G.K, P.R. Last, & R.D. Ward. 1999. Australian Seafood Handbook: Domestic Species. CSIRO Marine Research. Pp. 461. in Nature Australia. 26(8):74.