Ladyfish

About this species

The ladyfish or tenpounder is a species of fish in the genus Elops, the only genus in the monotypic family Elopidae.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Elops saurus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 100 records
February: 170 records
March: 185 records
April: 934 records
May: 1,671 records
June: 1,197 records
July: 625 records
August: 522 records
September: 2,011 records
October: 1,594 records
November: 368 records
December: 121 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–1 m · Deepest record: 287 m

0–10 m: 7,386 records
10–20 m: 2 records
20–30 m: 7 records
30–40 m: 1 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–27 °C

22–24 °C: 128 records
24–26 °C: 461 records
26–28 °C: 10 records

Photos

(c) Brian Gratwicke, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Quinn, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Quinn · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Quinn, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Quinn, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Fishes of Texas team, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Fishes of Texas team, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Reizo Knapp, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Ladyfish, ladyfish, Ladyfish, Tenpounder, Long john, Northern Ladyfish, Ten-pounder, Tenpounder

Names in 5 more languages

German: Frauenfisch
Spanish: banano, Macabí machete, machete del Atlántico, Malacho
French: Banane, Guinée-machète, Tarpon
Japanese: タイセイヨウカライワシ
Thai: ปลาตาเหลือกยาว

Other scientific names: Elopidae saurus, Elops inermis

Similar species

Banana Fsh
Elops hawaiensis
Tenpounder
Elops machnata

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
11,464 open-data records from 1766 to 2024.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.