Redtail Scad, Decapterus tabl

Redtail Scad, Decapterus tabl. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, July 2021. Length: 29 cm (11 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Luke Ovgard, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

The Redtail Scad, Decapterus tabl, is a member of the Jack or Carangidae Family, that is also known as the Roughear Scad and in Mexico as caballeta rabicolorá or macarela rabo colorado. 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 Redtail Scad has a “mackerel-like” elongated slender cylindrical body with a depth that is 16% to 20% of standard length. The upper jaw bone is straight on top and angular on the lower corner. They are a metallic blue to greenish dorsally, transition to silvery ventrally with a bright blue stripe mid-body. They have a small black blotch on the upper edge margin of the gill cover. Their anal fin and pelvic fins are white; and, their caudal fin and the margin of the second dorsal fin, dorsal finlets and pectoral fins are red. The inside of the mouth is dusky to clear. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 24 to 26 rays with widely detached finlets with 31 to 39 scutes in the lateral line; their caudal fin base is slender and the caudal fin is strongly forked; their first dorsal fin has 9 spines; their second dorsal fin has 30 to 34 rays with widely detached finlets. They have 10 to 13 and 28 to 33 gill rakers.

The Redtail Scad is a coastal pelagic schooling species that are normally found between mid-water and the bottom at depths up to 220 m (720 feet). They reach a maximum of 51 cm (20 inches) in length and 0.56 kg (1 lb 3 oz) in weight. They feed on small planktonic invertebrates, primarily copepods. The Redtail 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 Redtail Scad has a wide circumglobal distribution being found the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Indio-Pacific and Western Atlantic, however, they have a very limited distribution in Mexican waters being found in the Atlantic Ocean only in coastal waters around the northeast corner of the Yucatán Peninsula.

The Redtail Scad is most likely confused with the Mackerel Scad, Decapturus macarellus (yellow-green tail), the Rough Scad, Decapterus punctatus (amber-dusky tail), and the Rough Scad, Trachurus lathami (body depth 23% to 27%).

From a conservation perspective the Redtail Scad is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are of minor commercial interest, being caught as a by-catch by hook-and-line, and in gill nets, purse seines, and trawls. They are utilized as a bait fish and also marketed fresh on a limited basis for human consumption.