The ladyfish or tenpounder (''Elops saurus'') is a species of fish in the genus ''

Elops The Elopidae are a family of ray-finned fish containing a single living genus '' Elops''. They are commonly known as ladyfish, skipjacks, jack-rashes, or tenpounders. The ladyfish are a coastal-dwelling fish found throughout the tropical and sub ...

'', the only genus in the monotypic family

Elopidae The Elopidae are a family of ray-finned fish containing a single living genus '' Elops''. They are commonly known as ladyfish, skipjacks, jack-rashes, or tenpounders. The ladyfish are a coastal-dwelling fish found throughout the tropical and sub ...

Description

Like other species in its genus, the ladyfish has a long, slender, rounded body covered with silvery scales. Its mouth is terminal and the tail is deeply forked. The species can be distinguished by counting the number of

gill raker Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch (gill arch) and are involved with suspension feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the fleshy part of th ...

s and vertebrae.McBride, Richard S., et al. 2010
A new species of ladyfish, of the genus ''Elops'' (Elopiformes: Elopidae), from the western Atlantic Ocean.
''Zootaxa''. 2346: 29-41.

Distribution

The ladyfish is distributed in the western North Atlantic Ocean from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian province ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...

. Its distribution overlaps with the malacho (''Elops smithi'') in the southeast US and the southern Gulf of Mexico.McBride, Richard S. and A. Z. Horodysky. 2004. Mechanisms maintaining sympatric distributions of two ladyfish (Elopidae: ''Elops'') morphs in the Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic Ocean. ''Limnology and Oceanography''. 49(4): 1173-1181.

Biology

Like other members of the Elopidae, the ladyfish is a

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

fish that spawns in the sea, but little is known about this marine phase. The larvae, which are transparent and laterally compressed, are dispersed inshore and enter embayments, where they live for 2 to 3 yr. The juveniles are euryhaline, or tolerant to a wide range of

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

, so these embayments may be low-salinity

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environme ...

or hypersaline lagoons. Subadults move into the lower reaches of the embayments, and upon maturation, proceed to offshore, marine habitats.

Threats

This species uses estuarine areas and hypersaline lagoons; changes in the quality of these habitats may affect this species' population dynamics. Although this species may not be closely associated with any single habitat, it may be adversely affected by development and urbanization.Adams, A. J., et al. 2013
Global conservation status and research needs for tarpons (Megalopidae), ladyfishes (Elopidae) and bonefishes (Albulidae).
''Fish and Fisheries''. Early View (Online Version of Record published before inclusion in an issue.)

References

Elopidae Fish of the Eastern United States Fish of the Western Atlantic Fish described in 1766 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Elopiformes-stub