Round Scad, Decapterus punctatus

Round Scad, Decapterus punctatus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Long Island, New York, August 2022. Length: 14.1 cm (5.5 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of James Lafontaine, Long Island New York.

Round Scad, Decapterus punctatus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Tampa, Florida, May 2018. Length: 14.5 cm (5.7 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, San Diego, California.

The Round Scad, Decapterus punctatus, is a member of the Jack or Carangidae Family, that is also known as the Cigar Minnow and in Mexico as cométe quiaquia. There are twelve global members of the genus Decapteurs, of which five are found in Mexican waters, two in the Atlantic, two in the Pacific, and one in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The Round Scad has a “mackerel-like” elongated slender cylindrical body. They are bluish-green dorsally and silvery ventrally. They have a narrow bronze stripe that runs from the tip of the snout to the caudal fin base. They have a small black blotch on the upper edge margin of their gill cover. Mature fish have 1 to 14 small black spots along the curved portion of the lateral line. Their caudal fin is pale yellow. Their anal fin has a short base with has two standalone spines followed by 1 spine and 25 to 30 rays; the caudal fin has a slender base and is deeply forked; their first dorsal fin has 8 spines; and, their second dorsal fin has long base with 1 spine and 24 to 29 rays. They have 11 to 16 gill rakers on the upper arch and 32 to 44 gill rakers on the lower arch. Their lateral line has a long and low arch anteriorly.

The Round Scad is a pelagic schooling species found in coastal waters generally in mid-waters and toward the bottom at depths up to 110 m (360 feet). They reach a maximum length of 36 cm (14 inches). They feed on planktonic invertebrates including copepods, gastropod larvae, ostracods and pterioids. They have lifespans of up to four years. The Round Scad is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Round Scad is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean.

The Round Scad can be confused with the Mackerel Scad, Decapterus macarellus, the Redtail Scad, Decapterus tabl and the Rough Scad, Trachurus lathami but can be identified as each of these three species do not have the 1 to 14 small black spots along the curved portion of the lateral line.

From a conservation perspective the Round Scad is currently considered to be Data Deficient with poorly studied and poorly documented populations. They are pursued commercially on a limited basis being considered to be a good food fish although small in stature. They are used, when available, as a bait fish.