Overview
Smaller barracudas sometimes school, but the large ones are almost invariably loners. The first dorsal fin has 5 spines; the second, 10 soft rays. The first rays of the second dorsal and anal fins reach to or beyond the tips of the last rays when the fins are depressed. There are 75 90 scales along the lateral line. Great Barracuda has a blue-gray color above, fading to silver and chalky-white underneath. Sometimes a row of lightish dark-bars occours arcoss the ide of its body, with black blotches on each lower side.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Actinopterygii
- Order
- Tetradontiformes
- Family
- Sphyraenidae
- Genus
- Sphyraena
- Species
- barracuda
Habitat
Occurs in all tropical seas except the East Pacific. Found offshore and inshore around reefs, piers, wrecks, sandy and grassy flats, and wherever smaller fish congregate.
Diet
Small Fish, Cephalopods, Shrimp. They use the classic ambush attack, with a burst of speed they prounce on there desired prey with there lightnight speed.
Behavior
Barracuda's are voracious predators using the sneak attack. They patiently lie-and-wait until the right time an ambush there prey with lighting speed. They can reach a speed of up to 27 mph (43 km/h).
Fishing
Barracuda have been known to be aggresive towards swimmers/snorkelers for large pradators , following the, in hopes of eating the remains of their prey. Although, attacks on swimmers by barracudas are reported to be rare.
Conservation Status
Listed as Least Concern by IUCN.