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Fish·Active (October)

West African ladyfish

Elops lacerta

When
Active all year; habitat and behaviour shift with the season.
Habitat
Lagoons, estuaries, tidal creeks and shallow sandy or muddy shores along the West African coast — the Lagos Lagoon, the Ébrié lagoon at Abidjan and the Cross River among them — running some way up tidal rivers. Schools work the channels and the bars at lagoon mouths.
Identification
A slim, round-bodied, bright silver fish with a large mouth, a bony plate between the arms of the lower jaw, a single dorsal fin in the middle of the back and a deeply forked tail. The scales are small — 72 to 83 along the lateral line — and there is no long trailing ray on the dorsal fin.
Notes
A fast, leaping, schooling predator of sardines and other small fish, shrimps and molluscs. A cousin of the tarpon, it starts life at sea as a see-through, ribbon-like larva. It is easily confused with the Senegalese ladyfish, which shares the coast and is told apart only by its scale and gill-raker counts.
Method
Small silver spoons, spinners, shallow-running plugs or a baitfish fly on light tackle, worked through lagoon channels and river mouths on a moving tide; a strip of fish under a float also takes them.
Caution
West African rules vary — ask locally.

Seasons, size limits and catch limits change every year and differ by water body. Check the current regulations for the country and the water before fishing.

West African ladyfish facts

Also called
Ladyfish or tenpounder; guinée in French. FishBase and FAO call it the West African ladyfish, and it is often confused with the Senegalese ladyfish (Elops senegalensis), which shares its coast.
Family
Elopidae, the ladyfishes — close cousins of the tarpons.
Native range
The eastern Atlantic coast of West Africa, from Mauritania to Angola and perhaps Namibia.
Habitat
Shallow coastal water over sand and mud, from the shore and some way up tidal rivers to the edge of the shelf at about 50 m (165 ft). It enters lagoons and estuaries, and sometimes fresh water, as in the Cross River in Nigeria and the Kouilou in Congo.
Water temperature
Tropical. AquaMaps puts its preferred surface water at about 25–28°C (77–82°F).
Size
Most adults 30–60 cm (12–24 in); the largest measured about 100 cm (39 in).
Record
IGFA keeps no separate category for the West African ladyfish. Its record for the Senegalese ladyfish, which is easily confused with it, is 5.9 kg (13 lb 0 oz), Gerard Cittadini, Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau, 12 April 1994.
Lifespan
Not well documented.
What it eats
Small fish — sardines and other herrings above all — with crustaceans and molluscs; big ones also take insects.
Spawning
At sea. Like tarpon, ladyfish hatch as transparent, ribbon-like leptocephalus larvae that drift inshore and shrink as they change into small fish.
Teeth and mouth
A large, terminal mouth with bands of fine teeth and a bony plate (the gular plate) between the arms of the lower jaw.
Look-alikes
Senegalese ladyfish has smaller scales — 92 to 100 along the lateral line against 72 to 83 — and fewer gill rakers, so the two are hard to tell apart in the hand. Atlantic tarpon has huge scales, an upturned mouth and a long trailing ray on the dorsal fin.
Eating
Bony, like all ladyfish, but landed commercially and eaten along the West African coast.
Status
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2020).

Interactive

West African ladyfish: size range

Move the slider from a typical adult to the largest recorded specimen, shown against objects of known size.

45 cm · 18 inmost adults102030405060708090100110120cm612182430364248ina grown-up's hand · 18 cma loaf of bread · 30 cma 4-year-old, lying down · 100 cm

Most adults you'll catch: 30–60 cm (12–24 in).

This west african ladyfish: 45 cm. Longer than a loaf of bread, shorter than a four-year-old.

The record

IGFA keeps no separate category for the West African ladyfish. Its record for the Senegalese ladyfish, which is easily confused with it, is 5.9 kg (13 lb 0 oz), Gerard Cittadini, Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau, 12 April 1994.

Questions people ask about west african ladyfish

Is a ladyfish a kind of tarpon?

A close cousin. Ladyfish and tarpon belong to the same order and both start life as see-through, ribbon-like larvae. The ladyfish is slim, with small scales and no long trailing dorsal ray, and rarely tops a metre; the tarpon is deep-bodied, with huge scales, and grows to over 2 m.

How do you catch ladyfish?

On light tackle, with small spoons, spinners, shallow plugs or flies worked through lagoon channels and river mouths on a moving tide, or a strip of fish under a float. They leap hard and often throw the hook.

How big do West African ladyfish get?

Most are 30–60 cm (12–24 in); the largest recorded reach about 1 m (39 in).

Found in these regions

Checked against these sources ·

Sizes, records and ranges are for the species as a whole; local populations and rules vary. Records change; the record-keeper named above holds the current one.

Local activity

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Also active in October