Common Names

Atlantic tripletail, black grunt, black perch, bouyfish, dusky tripletail, dusky triple-tail, triple tail, tripletail, triple-tail.

Geographical Distribution

The tripletail is found from Massachusetts and Bermuda to Argentina, including both the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It is also found in the eastern Atlantic: Mediterranean Sea as well as from Madeira Island (Portugal) to the Gulf of Guinea, Eastern Pacific: Costa Rica to Peru, and the Western Pacific: Japan, Fiji, and Tuvalu. It is rare north of the Chesapeake Bay. They are found on the Gulf coast April through early October and migrate to the south during the winter months. There has been one report of a tripletail caught off the coast of California. The tripletail is not very abundant in any particular location.

Habitat

The tripletail is found coastally in most tropical and subtropical seas. The tripletail is a semi-migratory pelagic fish. It is normally solitary, but under some conditions the tripletail may form schools. In the summer, they can be found in bays, sounds and estuaries. Juveniles are often found swimming under patches of Sargassum algae. Adults are normally found in waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but may occur in passes, inlets, and bays near river mouths. The tripletail is often found around ship wrecks, supports of beacons, the pilings of jetties, and sea buoys. Tripletail larvae are usually found in waters greater than 84°F (28.8°C), greater than 30.3 ppt salinity and more than 230 feet (70 m) deep. The tripletail is the only member of its family Lobotidae found in the Atlantic Ocean.

Biology

· Distinctive Features

Tripletails have small scales extending onto the dorsal, caudal and anal fins and a head profile which becomes more concave with age. The tripletail has a compressed and deep body, with a triangular-shaped head. The eyes are relatively small, and its mouth is large. The bases of both its dorsal and anal fins are scaled, and its pectoral fins are shorter than its pelvic fins. The tripletail has distinctively large and rounded soft dorsal, caudal, and anal fins. This characteristic gave rise to the common name.

Coloration

The juveniles are mottled with yellow, brown and black, whereas large adults are jet black. Lying on its side at the water surface, a young tripletail looks like a floating mangrove leaf. The juveniles have white pectoral fins and a white margin on the caudal fin. Adult tripletails have varied mottled color patterns, ranging from dark brown to a reddish brown or brown with a tint of gray.

 

Dentition

The tripletail has no teeth on the vomer and palatine.

 

Size, Age, and Growth

The tripletail grows to 35 inches (89 cm) in length and a weight of 41 pounds (18.6 kg ). However, the average weight is between 2.2 and 15.4 pounds (1-7 kg). The tripletail grows fastest in its first year. This may be an adaptation to the high predation rate of small fishes in the epipelagic zone. The transition from a larval tripletail to a juvenile occurs between 0.35-0.37 inches (9.0-9.5 mm) in standard length.

 

Food Habits

The tripletail feeds on small finfish, shrimp, and crabs.

Predators

The tripletail does not have many predators, however, mainly sharks and larger teleosts feed on this fish.