Hawaiian ladyfish (Elops hawaiensis) is a saltwater, freshwater, brackish species recorded in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia. It is found at depths of 1–30 m.
Scientific name: Elops hawaiensis · Water: Saltwater, Freshwater, Brackish
Size: up to 120 cm
The Hawaiian ladyfish is an elopid, a coastal fish that commonly enters lagoons, bays and estuaries (including fishponds), particularly around mangroves, and sometimes enters freshwater streams without penetrating far inland. It is benthopelagic, an active swimmer that schools in open water, and feeds on fishes and crustaceans. Young fish often reach the lower freshwater stretches of rivers and juveniles are common in salt marshes, canals and tidal streams; it spawns offshore and its young are transparent and leaf-shaped, moving shoreward as they grow. Its range runs from the Andaman Sea in the eastern Indian Ocean to Western Australia, and in the Pacific from southern Japan to New South Wales and New Caledonia, through most of Oceania to the Hawaiian, Society and Tuamotu Islands. It is currently treated as a single species, though that status is considered provisional. It is a commercial and game species, marketed fresh or frozen and in places ground into fish meal. Maximum length is about 120 cm standard length, commonly about 50 cm, and it can weigh 10.1 kg. It is a tropical species, found from 1 to 30 m and recorded from 41°N to 40°S and 92°E to 138°W. Trophic level is 4, and fishing vulnerability is high to very high at 72 of 100. IUCN lists it as data deficient.
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