Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Trop­i­cal and sub­trop­i­cal areas of the At­lantic, Pa­cific, and In­dian Oceans. (Benetti, et al., 1995a)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native
• indian ocean
  • native
• atlantic ocean
  • native
• pacific ocean
  • native

Habi­tat

In pelagic re­gions, Coryphaena hip­pu­rus is com­monly found near float­ing ob­jects, ap­par­ently be­cause its prey seek refuge under the ob­jects (Palko, et al. 1982).

The dol­phin fish is a top preda­tor in the At­lantic Sar­gas­sum. Com­mon Sar­gas­sum fauna, such as mem­bers of the Bal­is­ti­dae, Carangi­dae, and crabs (De­capoda), have been found in the stom­achs of dol­phin fishes caught there (Beard­s­ley, 1967).

Though it is most fre­quently found in trop­i­cal wa­ters, Coryphaena hip­pu­rus has been de­tected and stud­ied as far north as Ire­land (Quigley, 1996). (Beard­s­ley, 1967; Palko, et al., 1982; Quigley and Flan­nery, 1996)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• saltwater or marine

• Aquatic Biomes
• pelagic
• coastal

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Coryphaena hip­pu­rus has a long, slen­der, ta­pered body spe­cial­ized for swim­ming at high speeds. It has pig­mented pelvic fins and bands of pig­ment lat­er­ally on both the body and me­dian fins. There is a square supra­or­bital re­gion, and the dor­sal fin runs nearly to the bright yel­low cau­dal fin. C. hip­pu­rus is a bright blue-green dor­sally, and yel­low­ish-white with pig­ments ven­trally. Sex­ual di­mor­phism is ev­i­dent, but only no­tice­able after 6 months of age (Benetti, et al. 1995). Males are phys­i­cally larger and heav­ier than fe­males of the same age, and males have a more pro­nounced neu­ro­cra­nium (Ditty, 1994). Dol­phin fish com­monly reach 1 meter in length, but can reach up to 2 me­ters. They usu­ally weight around 14 kg but can weigh more than 30 kg, with a max­i­mum recorded weight of 39.5 kg. (Benetti, et al., 1995a; Ditty, et al., 1994)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• sexes shaped differently

• Range mass

  39.5 (high) kg

  87.00 (high) lb

• Average mass

  14 kg

  30.84 lb

• Range length

  2 (high) m

  6.56 (high) ft

• Average length

  1 m

  3.28 ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

Males and fe­males are sex­u­ally ma­ture in their first year, usu­ally by 4-5 months old. Spawn­ing can occur at body lengths of 20 cm. Fe­males may spawn two to three times per year, and pro­duce be­tween 80,000 and 1,000,000 eggs per event.

In wa­ters above 34° C, lar­vae are found all year, with greater num­bers de­tected in spring and fall. In one study, sev­enty per­cent of the youngest lar­vae col­lected in the north­ern Gulf of Mex­ico were found at a depth greater than 180 me­ters. Spawn­ing oc­curs nor­mally in cap­tiv­ity, with 100,000 eggs per event. Prob­lems main­tain­ing salin­ity, food of ad­e­quate nu­tri­tional value and proper size, and dis­solved oxy­gen are re­spon­si­ble for lar­val mor­tal­ity rates of 20-40% (Lee, 1997). (Beard­s­ley, 1967; Ditty, et al., 1994; Lee, 1997)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • external
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Nutritional levels are likely to determine how frequently females can spawn.

• Breeding season

  In warm waters, spawning can occur year round.

• Range number of offspring

  80,000 to 1,000,000

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  12 (high) months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  4-5 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  12 (high) months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  4-5 months

Lifes­pan/Longevity

In cap­tiv­ity (aqua­cul­ture), dol­phin­fish have not been sus­tained for more than 18 months (Benetti, 1995). In the wild, they are be­lieved to live an av­er­age of 2 years, and a max­i­mum of 5 years (Beard­s­ley, 1967). (Beard­s­ley, 1967; Benetti, et al., 1995b; Ditty, et al., 1994)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  18 (high) months

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  5 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  4 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

Dol­phin are ac­tive gen­er­al­ist preda­tors which ex­pend high amounts of en­ergy in epipelagic re­gions for prey cap­ture. Due to their oxy­gen needs, dol­phin must swim con­tin­u­ously to ven­ti­late their gills. In order to achieve such high gas ex­change, dol­phin gills have a larger sur­face area than those of most other teleosts. This con­tributes to the higher en­ergy ex­pen­di­ture rel­a­tive to other teleosts. Dol­phin grow most rapidly in the wild, often reach­ing 1 meter in length and a mass of 8 kilo­grams at the end of the first year. How­ever, in cap­tiv­ity (aqua­cul­ture), dol­phin grow more slowly and have less stream­lined bod­ies. This is at­trib­uted to re­duced swim­ming due to small tanks and high pop­u­la­tion den­sity (Benetti, et al. 1995).

In­traspecies can­ni­bal­ism has been ob­served in some mem­bers (Mas­suti, et al. 1998).

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• motile

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Dol­phin ob­served in the west­ern Mediter­ranean are vi­sual gen­er­al­ist preda­tors, and hence feed pri­mar­ily dur­ing the day, when ad­e­quate sun­light is avail­able. They feed on teleosts, cephalopods, and crus­taceans, with a pos­i­tive cor­re­la­tion be­tween dol­phin size and prey size (Mas­suti, et al. 1998).

In cap­tiv­ity, dol­phin fed a sim­i­lar diet to that found in the wild (fish, squid, etc.) grow more slowly than those in the wild, but more rapidly than those fed with pro­tein-rich food pel­lets in cap­tiv­ity (Benetti, 1995).

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

C. hip­pu­rus is one of the most pop­u­lar sport­fish glob­ally. Be­cause it is prized for its meat as well, it is har­vested com­mer­cially both in the wild and via aqua­cul­ture

(Benetti, 1995).

Dol­phin grows rapidly in cap­tiv­ity, with low mor­tal­ity, which has al­lowed for hatch­eries and farms through­out the world (Mor­gan, et al. 1996; Lee, 1997).

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Due to re­cent ad­vance­ments in lar­val rear­ing via pro­longed re­search, dol­phin aqua­cul­ture pre­sents a po­ten­tially lu­cra­tive and abun­dant source of food for hu­mans, and re­duces the chance of com­mer­cial and sport over­fish­ing in the wild. (Lee, 1997)

Con­trib­u­tors

William Fink (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Joshua Bost­wick (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Beard­s­ley, G. 1967. Age, Growth, and Re­pro­duc­tion of the Dol­phin, Coryphaena hip­pu­rus, in the Straits of Florida.. Copeia, 1967: 441-451.

Benetti, D., R. Brill, S. Kraul. 1995. The stan­dard meta­bolic rate of dol­phin fish.. Jour­nal of Fish Bi­ol­ogy, 46(6): 987-996.

Benetti, D., E. Iver­son, A. Os­trowski. 1995. Growth rates of cap­tive dol­phin, Coryphaena hip­pu­rus, in Hawaii.. Fish­ery Bul­letin, 93(1): 152-157.

Ditty, J., R. Shaw, C. Grimes, J. Cope. 1994. Lar­val de­vel­op­ment, dis­tri­b­u­tion, and abun­dance of com­mon dol­phin, Coryphaena hip­pu­rus, and pom­pano dol­phin, C. eq­ui­selis (fam­ily: Coryphaenidae), in the north­ern Gulf of Mex­ico.. Fish­ery Bul­letin, 92(2): 275-291.

Lee, C. 1997. Ma­rine fin­fish hatch­ery tech­nol­ogy in the USA – sta­tus and fu­ture.. Hy­dro­bi­olo­gia, 358(1-3): 45-54.

Mas­suti, E., S. Deud­ero, P. Sanchez, B. Morales-Nin. 1998. Diet and feed­ing of dol­phin (Coryphaena hip­pu­rus) in west­ern Mediter­ranean wa­ters.. Bul­letin of Ma­rine Sci­ence, 63(2): 329-341.

Mor­gan, J., S. Bal­fry, M. Vi­jayan, G. Iwama. 1996. Phys­i­o­log­i­cal re­sponses to hy­pos­aline ex­po­sure and han­dling and con­fine­ment stress in ju­ve­nile dol­phin (mahimahi: Coryphanea hip­pu­rus).. Cana­dian Jour­nal of Fish­eries and Aquatic Sci­ences, 53(8): 1736-1740.

Palko, B., G. Beard­s­ley, W. Richards. 1982. Syn­op­sis of the bi­o­log­i­cal data on dol­phin­fishes, Coryphaena hip­pu­rus and Coryphaena eq­ui­selis. NMFS Circ. 443: NOAA Tech. Rep..

Pot­thoff, T. 1980. De­vel­op­ment and struc­ture of fins and fin sup­ports in dol­phin fishes. Fish­ery Bul­letin, 78(2): 277-312.

Quigley, D., K. Flan­nery. 1996. Com­mon dol­phin-fish Coryphanea hip­pu­rus L. in Irish and other north-. Irish Nat­u­ral­ists’ Jour­nal, 25(7): 260-263.