Gracile lizardfish

Saurida gracilis

Fish
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth1–25 m
Water temperature18–30 °C
Best monthsJuly, September, and October
How commonOccasional

All species

Photo credit: (c) Roger Rittmaster, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Roger Rittmaster · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

The gracile lizardfish is a species of lizardfish which lives mainly in the Indo-Pacific region.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Gracile lizardfish”, 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: 81 records
February: 69 records
March: 65 records
April: 71 records
May: 105 records
June: 70 records
July: 113 records
August: 107 records
September: 113 records
October: 143 records
November: 104 records
December: 61 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 1–25 m · Deepest record: 310 m

0–10 m: 321 records
10–20 m: 65 records
20–30 m: 36 records
30–40 m: 13 records
40–50 m: 6 records
50–60 m: 2 records
60–70 m: 4 records
70–80 m: 1 records
80–90 m: 2 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 7 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–30 °C

18–20 °C: 1 records
20–22 °C: 1 records
22–24 °C: 9 records
24–26 °C: 40 records
26–28 °C: 100 records
28–30 °C: 137 records

Photos

(c) Emanuele Santarelli, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tom Heijnen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Rui Ribeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Gracile lizardfish, Slender lizardfish, Blotchy Lizardfish, Graceful Lizardfish, gracile lizardfish, Gracile Saury, Slender Grinner, slender lizardfish, Slender Lizardfish, Gracile lizardfish, Slender Saury

Names in 4 more languages

Spanish: lagarto grácil
French: anoli grêle, Anoli grêle, Poisson-lézard, Poisson-lézard, Poisson-lézard gracile
Japanese: Madaraeso, マダラエソ
Simplified Chinese: 小蜥魚, 汕狗母, 海狗母梭, 狗母, 狗母梭, 番狗母, 細蛇鯔

Other scientific names: Saurida gracila, Saurida gracilata, Saurida gracillis, Saurus gracilis, Saurus minutus

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).
1,612 open-data records from 1824 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.

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