South Asian tropical mackerel , or kanagurt [1] , or South Asian mackerel [2] ( lat. Rastrelliger kanagurta ), is a species of ray-finned fish of the mackerel family. The maximum recorded total body length is 42.1 cm. They live in coastal tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific region . They feed on plankton . It is an object of target fishing [3] [4] .
| South Asian Tropical Mackerel |
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| Scientific classification |
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| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| View: | South Asian Tropical Mackerel |
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| International scientific name |
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Rastrelliger kanagurta ( Cuvier , 1816) |
| Security status |
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Not enough data IUCN Data Deficient : 170328 |
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The body is elongated, spindle-shaped, moderately high, covered with small cycloid scales . The maximum body height at the vertical, passing immediately beyond the edge of the gill cover, fits 4.0–4.8 times into the standard body length. Head is longer than body height. The first infraorbital bone enters the maxillary bone. Pointed snout. The front and rear edges of the eyes are covered with a fat eyelid. The teeth on the upper and lower jaw are small, conical in shape. There are no teeth on the opener and palate. Gill stamens are very long, visible with open mouth, quite numerous (30-46 on the lower part of the first gill arch). The two dorsal fins are separated by a gap whose length is equal to or greater than the base length of the first dorsal fin. In the first dorsal fin there are 9-11 spiny rays. In the second dorsal and anal fins, 12 soft rays. Between the second dorsal and caudal fins , as well as between the anal and caudal fins, is a row of five smaller fins. The pectoral fins are short with 19-20 soft rays. The caudal fin is forks. Caudal stalk short and narrow. Two small keels pass along the sides of the caudal stem; there is no central keel. There is a swimming bladder . There are 31 vertebrae [2] [5] .
The back is painted in bluish-green color, the sides are silver with a golden hue, the belly is gray-white. Narrow dark longitudinal stripes (golden in freshly caught individuals) pass along the upper half of the body. The bottom edge of the pectoral fins has a black spot. The maximum total body length is 42.1 cm, the standard body length is up to 35 cm, usually 20-25 cm [3] .
