Species: Caranx ruber, Bar Jack

Caranx ruber (Bloch, 1793)

Bar Jack

Body elongate, moderately deep, moderately compressed in adults; top jaw not or just reaching under eye; both jaws with a band of small simple teeth; 31-38 lower gill rakers; pectoral fins longer than head; dorsal (VIII + I, 26-30) and anal (II+I, 23-26), front lobes of both dorsal and anal fins slightly raised; no finlets after 2nd dorsal and anal fins; tail base slender; tail strongly forked; straight rear part (but not curved front part) of lateral line with 29-39 scutes (large, hard spiny scales); tail base with a pair of keels on each side.

Silvery, tinted light blue above; a blue stripe from snout along top of back then down along lower edge of lower lobe of tail fin, that bordered above by a black stripe from under the origin of the second dorsal to the tail tip; juvenile with ~6 dark bars on body.

Reaches 69 cm, 6.8 kg.

Found in clear water habitats, both around the edges of reefs and over soft and seagrass bottoms.

Depth range: 0-155 m.

New Jersey to Brazil.