Read the article with FishingTheSpot: the little tunny
Keep an eye on this subject!
Thousands of species spotlights and techniques but also all the local information about your city!
Meet other anglers near you and share your fishing fishing trips, afoot or on a boat, at sea or in freshwater
See the fishing tripsThe Little Tunny
All year round
no restriction
Did you fish
this species this month?
The Little Tunny belongs to the Scombridae family. The average size of little tunny can reach 81 cm in length and weigh up to 9.1 kg. The maximum size recorded is 122 cm and 16 kg. Little tunny can live up to 10 years. It spawns from April to November. It can be fished all year round.
The little tunny has a robust torpedo-shaped body designed for powerful swimming. The mouth is large, slightly bent and terminal with rigid jaws. The lower jaw slightly protrudes from the upper jaw. There are two longitudinal ridges on the tongue. The body lacks scales, with the exception of the corselet and the lateral line. The corselet is a band of large and thick scales forming a circle around the body behind the head, extending backwards along the lateral line. The lateral line is slightly wavy with a slight arch below the dorsal fin, then straight towards the caudal keel. The caudal fin is deeply lunar, with a thin caudal pendulum including a short keel on each side. The first dorsal fin has high anterior spines that give it a concave contour, which is only very closely separated from the second dorsal fin. The pectoral fins are pointed and short and do not extend to the end of the first dorsal fin; the pelvic fins are inserted just behind the origin of the pectoral fins. The swim bladder is absent. This fish is steel blue with 3 to 5 broken dark wavy lines, not extending below the lateral line. The belly is white and lacks stripes. There are 3 to 7 black spots between the pelvic and pect
The Little Tunny lifestyle
Little tunny eats crustaceans, squid, clupeid fish and tunicates. They often feed on herring and sardines on the surface of the water.
Egg laying occurs from April to November in the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, while in the Mediterranean Sea, egg laying occurs from late spring to summer. Little tunnys are born outside the continental shelf region in waters with a temperature of at least 25°C, where females release up to 1,750,000 eggs per batch. Males release sperm, fertilizing the eggs in the water column. These fertilized eggs are pelagic, spherical and transparent, with a diameter of 0.8 to 1.1 mm. the eggs hatch after 24 hours.
The Little Tunny habitat
These fish are generally found in neritic waters, near the coasts on the continental shelf, in turbid and brackish waters.
It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from Massachusetts (United States) to southern Brazil, through the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and Bermuda. It is the most common scombroid in the western North Atlantic. Other places include the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
The Little Tunny angling
It is often caught by line when hanging around with lures near reefs.
