(Last Updated on : 26-08-2014)
is a large, rapacious, tropical marine fish of the genus Sphyraena with a slender, streamlined body. The long, powerful jaws are equipped with sharp, dagger-like teeth, those at the front being much longer and forming strong fangs for holding their prey. They grow to three metres and weigh twenty five kilograms. For their size, they are more ferocious than sharks, and divers are more afraid of the utterly fearless barracuda than the sharks. The dorsal and anal fins are situated far to the rear. Their young congregate in shoals, but the adults are solitary. Eight species of barracuda occur in Indian waters but large individuals are rarely seen.
The collective name given to a group of barracudas is battery. These fishes are voracious and opportunistic predators depending on surprise and small bursts of speed (which is up to twenty eight miles per hour or forty five kilometres per hour) in order to catch up with their prey. Most adults of the species of Barracudas are to some extent solitary, while the younger and the half-grown barracudas often congregate. The food of the barracudas is mainly fish, and at times as large fishes as themselves, which they tear off to small chunks and eat. They are well known both as game fish and as food. They are mainly eaten as steaks or fillets. Some of the large species of Barracudas like the Great Barracuda, have been used in instances of ciguatera food poisoning
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