Cobia

Fascinating facts about the Cobia

• Imagine a fish that spends the cold months cruising the Gulf of Mexico, then darts north along the Atlantic coast all the way to Massachusetts each spring – that’s the cobia’s yearly migration route.
• A single specimen once tipped the scales at 79.6 kg (175 lb) near Rottnest Island, Australia, eclipsing the previous 60 kg (135 lb) record from Shark Bay, and stretching up to 2 m (78 in) in length.
• It can survive in waters as chilly as 1.6 °C or as warm as 32.2 °C, and tolerates salinity ranging from 5.0 to 44.5 ppt, making it one of the most temperature- and salt-flexible marine predators.
• Each female can lay millions of buoyant 1.2 mm eggs and may spawn up to 30 times between April and September, while males reach breeding age at two years and females at three, with both sexes living 15 years or more.
• In 2004 the FAO reported that 80.6 % of global cobia production came from China and Taiwan, where growers raise 100-600 g juveniles for 1-1.5 years until they hit 6-8 kg before exporting them worldwide.

At a glance

About the Cobia

Gliding through warm-tempered seas with the sleek silhouette of a shark, the cobia (Rachycentron canadum) can reach a striking 2 m in length and weigh up to 79 kg. Its dark brown back fades to a silvery belly, crossed by two bold brown bands that intensify during the spawning season, when the fish’s background flashes like a living lantern. The elongated, fusiform body is crowned by a broad, flattened head, small eyes, and a lower jaw that nudges past the upper, all lined with fine villiform teeth. Six to nine stout dorsal spines give the family its name, Rachycentridae, from the Greek for “spine” and “sting”, while the large horizontal pectoral fins and lunated tail lend it a shark-like profile despite lacking a swim bladder. A true wanderer, the cobia winters in the Gulf of Mexico before drifting north to Massachusetts in summer, skirting Florida in March. It roams pelagic waters yet will slip into estuaries and mangroves, often congregating around reefs, wrecks, and buoys. Its diet is a carnivorous buffet of crabs, squid, and fish, and it displays a curious habit of tail-following larger marine giants, sharks, turtles, manta rays, to scavenge leftovers. One surprising trait is its eurythermal tolerance, thriving in temperatures from 1.6 °C to 32.2 °C and salinities from 5.0 to 44.5 ppt, a flexibility that underpins its spread into the eastern Mediterranean since 1978 and its recent establishment on the eastern Pacific coast after escaped juveniles in Ecuador in August 2015.

More fish to discover

Browse Feravox