Torpedo scad (Megalaspis cordyla) is a saltwater, brackish species recorded in Malaysia. It is found at depths of 20–100 m. The main season in Malaysia runs all year.
Scientific name: Megalaspis cordyla · Water: Saltwater, Brackish · Season: All year
Size: up to 80 cm
Weight: up to 4 kg
The torpedo scad is the only member of the genus Megalaspis: a long, torpedo-shaped jack with a blue-green back, silvery flanks, a row of keeled scutes along the rear lateral line and detached finlets behind both the dorsal and anal fins. It is a schooling tropical Indo-Pacific species that lives in the surface layers of inshore and offshore waters, feeding on fish, cephalopods and crustaceans. Malaysia is one of the world's main catchers, landing roughly 22,000 tonnes a year, and locally the fish is the ikan cencaru — a favourite in the east coast states of Terengganu and Kelantan and off Perak and Selangor on the west coast, sold fresh, dried or salted. Small metal jigs and trolling work well from boats, and a bottom or float rig with prawn takes them from shore.
Its range runs from South Africa west to Tonga, north to Japan and south to Australia, across the tropical Indo-Pacific. Although fish are the dominant prey in every size class, the diet shifts as the fish grows, and it feeds both by active predation and by filter feeding. Spawning off India takes place between March and July. Fishery statistics that exclude India show the annual catch rising from about 70,000 tonnes in 1997 to about 107,000 tonnes in 2007, Indonesia and Malaysia being the main users in that data. One point is worth stating plainly: in places such as Australia it is regarded as only marginal table fare and is occasionally used as bait, whereas in Malaysia and South-East Asia it is a popular food fish.
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