Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish, Exocoetus volitans
Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish, Exocoetus volitans. Fish provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, November 2011. Length: 20.5 cm (8.0 inches).
The Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish, Exocoetus volitans, is a member of the Flyingfish or Exocoetidae Family, and is known in Mexico as volador tropical. Globally, there are five species in the genus Exocoetus, of which three are found in Mexican waters, one in the Atlantic, one in the Pacific, and one in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
The Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish has an elongated broadly cylindrical body. They are dark dorsally and silvery ventrally. Their fins are pale to slightly dusky. They have a short head with a short blunt snout and a small mouth without teeth. Juveniles have a hump on their nape and no barbels. Their anal fin origin has 12 to 15 rays and is under the third dorsal ray; their caudal fin is deeply forked with a longer lower lobe; their dorsal fin has 13 to 15 rays; their pectoral fins are exceedingly long and reach the caudal fin base; and, their pelvic fins are short and do not reach the anal fin base with their origin is closer to the pectoral fin base than the anal fin base. They have 32 to 37 gill rakers. They are covered with large smooth scales. Their lateral line is low on the body.
The Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish is an oceanic pelagic species found on the surface to depths of 20 m (65 feet). They reach a maximum of 24.0 cm (9.4 inches) in length. As of January 1, 2024, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 0.45 kg (1 lb 0 oz) with the fish caught in coastal waters off Miami Beach, Florida in June 2016. They feed on planktonic organisms and small fish. In turn they are preyed upon by birds, dolphins, dorado, marlins, porpoises, squid, and tuna. They have large pectoral fins and are capable of leaping and gliding considerable distances above the ocean surface. Reproduction is oviparous with the release of large sticky filaments that attach to floating or benthic weeds. The Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish 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.
In Mexican waters the Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish is found in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. They are found in all waters of the Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. In the Pacific they have a limited distribution being found from Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, southward along the southwest coast of Baja, and along the west coast of the mainland south to Guatemala; they are absent from the Sea of Cortez.
The Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish can be confused with the Barbel Flyingfish, Exocoetus monocirrhus (very dark caudal fin) and the Sailfin Flyingfish, Parexocoetus brachypterus (large dorsal fin with very wide black margin).
From a conservation perspective the Tropical Two-wing Flyingfish is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are relatively small in stature, seldom seen by humans and of limited interest to most.