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Yellowstripe barracuda (Sphyraena chrysotaenia): the little barracuda from the Red Sea — recorded as a garfish in 1931, now in the nets of the Levant

Catch a barracuda in the eastern Mediterranean that is barely longer than your hand, and you will probably think of a young European barracuda. Often, though, it is a species of its own: *Sphyraena chrysotaenia* — in English the yellowstripe barracuda (GBIF/Catalogue of Life), also listed as green-and-gold barracuda (ITIS); in Italian barracuda dalle strisce gialle, barracuda orientale or barracuda ottuso (Italian Wikipedia), in Maltese lizz ta' lvant, in Greek Κουτσομουρόλουτσος, in Arabic باراكودا الخط الأصفر (GBIF, Wikidata). The species is native to the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea and reached the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. Here is how to recognise it, how far it has spread, what it eats — and why its first Mediterranean record was filed under the wrong name.

1931: a barracuda recorded as a garfish

It was described by Carl Benjamin Klunzinger in 1884. According to the CIESM Atlas of Exotic Fishes, the first Mediterranean record comes from Palestine — published by Spicer 1931, but under the name *Belone acus*, in other words as a garfish. A long, silvery fish with a pointed snout: the mix-up is understandable.

How to recognise it

  • Small. Typical sizes are 12–25 cm (CIESM Atlas) or 20–25 cm (English Wikipedia). The heaviest fish listed on FishBase weigh just under 150 g. A barracuda over half a metre is not *S. chrysotaenia*.
  • The pelvic fin sits below the pectoral fin. This is the feature the CIESM Atlas uses to separate it from the two big Mediterranean barracudas: in *Sphyraena sphyraena* and *S. viridensis* the pelvic fin sits behind the tip of the pectoral fin.
  • Yellow tail. CIESM Atlas and Italian Wikipedia: caudal fin yellow. FishBase adds: yellow with black on the upper and rear margin.
  • One dark lateral band. From the snout through the eye to the caudal peduncle, often yellowish on the head (FishBase, English Wikipedia) — hence the English name. Italian Wikipedia describes it as a yellow or brown line that is sometimes faint; the back can have a golden sheen.
  • Teeth like every barracuda. Long, pointed jaws, the lower jaw slightly protruding, large fangs of different sizes in the jaws and on the palate (CIESM Atlas).
  • Two widely separated dorsal fins, the first spiny, with the first spine the longest; the second starts ahead of the anal fin. The tail is clearly forked.

How far it has come

The list in the CIESM Atlas reads like a route heading west: Palestine 1931, İskenderun (Turkey) 1957, Lebanon 1964, Mersin (Turkey) 1966, Libya 1970, Malta 1993, Ionian Sea and southern Adriatic 2001 (first Adriatic record: Pallaoro and Dulčić). Add to that records from Kuşadası Bay in the Aegean and from Diafani on Karpathos. English Wikipedia also mentions the Gulf of Gabès (Tunisia) from 2002, where by 2007 the species made up an important part of the catch. The Atlas sums up its establishment in two words: “very common”.

Habitat, prey, spawning

  • Inshore and shallow. Demersal to pelagic, down to about 50 m (CIESM Atlas, FishBase, English Wikipedia). Juveniles often hold in very shallow water.
  • In large schools. Every source that describes its behaviour calls it gregarious.
  • Hunts schooling fish near the bottom. Its main prey are clupeoids such as round sardinella (*Sardinella aurita*) and European anchovy (*Engraulis encrasicolus*), and to a lesser extent crustaceans (CIESM Atlas, English Wikipedia).
  • A short life. About 5 years at most; usually mature at 2 years at around 19.5 cm total length (English Wikipedia; FishBase: 19.3 cm).
  • Eggs and larvae drift in the plankton (CIESM Atlas).

A barracuda for the fisheries of the Levant

According to the CIESM Atlas, the species contributes considerably to trawl and purse-seine fisheries in the eastern Mediterranean. English Wikipedia calls it the most common barracuda in Lebanon’s artisanal fishery — outnumbering the other landed species by 70 %. For the Gulf of Suez it cites signs of overfishing: many landed fish were too small to have reached maturity. On FishBase it is not evaluated by the IUCN; FishBase rates its vulnerability to fishing as low (24 out of 100).

Where the sources disagree

  • How big does it get? Italian and Spanish Wikipedia: 30 cm at most. English Wikipedia: 32 cm standard length, i.e. without the tail fin. FishBase: 32.2 cm total length. CIESM Atlas: up to 35 cm.
  • How many spines in the first dorsal fin? CIESM Atlas and English Wikipedia: 5. FishBase: 6. They count the anal fin differently too — CIESM writes “I + 9”, FishBase “2 spines, 9 soft rays”.
  • Common or rare? Italian Wikipedia calls it the least widespread barracuda species in the Mediterranean. The CIESM Atlas calls it “very common”, English Wikipedia the most common barracuda in Lebanese catches. A possible explanation: Italian Wikipedia looks at the whole Mediterranean, the other sources mainly at the east.
  • When does it spawn? CIESM Atlas and English Wikipedia: April to September. For the central Mediterranean, English Wikipedia gives August to November.
  • Which order does it belong to? Spanish and Turkish Wikipedia: Perciformes. English Wikipedia: Carangiformes. The CIESM Atlas places the barracudas under Scombriformes. The family — barracudas (Sphyraenidae) — is the same everywhere.

Three naming traps

  • “Obtusata” may be the same species — or may not. The CIESM Atlas lists *Sphyraena obtusata* as a synonym. Italian Wikipedia says the two are so similar as to be indistinguishable and that it is not certain they are two separate species. That is why GBIF also shows the names becune obtuse (French) and picuda obtusa (Spanish) for *S. chrysotaenia*, and one identification portal calls it obtuse barracuda.
  • The third small barracuda. *Sphyraena flavicauda* also came through the Suez Canal. The CIESM Atlas separates the two by the length of the pectoral fin — yet describes it in both as reaching the vertical below the first dorsal fin. With the naked eye at the water’s edge, that is hard to call.
  • Garfish, mullet, sand smelt. The Atlas explicitly lists what it can be confused with: grey mullets (four dorsal spines, short snout), sand smelts (short snout, small mouth) and sillagos (small mouth, dorsal fins close together). The garfish of 1931 shows that the list is not theoretical.

Which leaves the question every article in this series starts with: when. For a predator that hunts sardines and anchovies near the bottom in schools close to shore, the right day matters more than any rig. Habitat, prey and features are listed above, and they are fixed. What changes every day are the conditions on your water — StrikeAhead calculates them and tells you when the trip is worth it. And because you don’t know the edges and rules of unfamiliar water from day one, StrikeAhead Pathfinder tells you with whom to head out: curated guides and skippers, personally vetted before listing — licence and insurance —, with verified catches instead of advertising photos, no paid ranking and, for you as an angler, no booking fee. The app says when, Pathfinder with whom.