Tarpon -- Also Known as the \"Silver

Tarpon -- Also Known as the "Silver King"

The Tarpon

The Tarpon is a large silvery fish found in many waters throughout the world, from the Eastern Atlantic Ocean down to Africa, in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and around Florida's Keys, including Islamorada, Florida. This fish is often called the "silver king," according to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH). It is called the silver king by anglers because when it leaps up into the air, and the sun is shining, this fish gives off a bright silvery flash. And when the person fishing is using waders in shallow waters near shore, where Tarpons are known to do their own "fishing" -- that includes estuaries, lagoons and shallow bays -- that bright silver flash beneath the surface is visible as well.

The Literature on the Tarpon

The genus of the Tarpon is Megalops; its family is either Elopiformes or Megalopidae, but scientists are in debate about which family the Tarpon belongs to (FLMNH). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lafayette, Louisiana asserts that the Tarpon is in the Osteichthyes class, in the Elopiformes Order, and its Family Elopidae or Megalopidae.

The Tarpon has something in common with the hawk: females are larger than males. In fact the mature female Tarpon can grow to over eight feet long and can weight up to 355 pounds, a huge fish that anglers seek because of its good tasting flesh and also because it provides so much food per fish, the Atlantic Panic Web site explains. The Tarpon doesn't reach sexual maturity until it is six or seven years of age; the male Tarpon can live up to 30 years, and the females are known to live up to 50 years and more (Atlantic Panic).

The Atlantic Panic Web site also points out that though the Tarpon is a salt-water fish, it is amazingly versatile because it can swim upstream into fresh water rivers. It can also tolerate "oxygen-poor environments" because it is blessed with "a modified air bladder that allows them to inhale atmospheric oxygen," the Atlantic Panic site points out. The very new Tarpon larvae feeds on the nutrients that are found in the seawater ("zooplankton"), the FLMNH explains. As it grows, the little Tarpon feeds on insects and very small fish. Gradually it preys on fishes -- "especially poecilids and cyprinodontids" (FLNMNH) -- and larger marine life like crabs and shrimp. Once fully grown, the Tarpon is a voracious feeder, filling up on pinfish, marine catfishes, sardines, crabs, and Atlantic needlefish, the Florida Museum of National History points out.