Synonym/common names:
Longtail tuna, Thunnus rarus Kishinouye, 1915 ; Neothunnus rarus Kishinouye, 1923 ; Kishinoella rara Jordan & Hubbs, 1925 ; Neothunnus tonggol Jordan & Evermann, 1926.
Names in different languages:
Netherlands: Tonggoltonijn, Spain: Atún tongol, Italy: Tonno indiano, Denmark: Tonggol-tun, Germany: Langschwanz-Thunfisch, Portugal: Atum-do-índico, France: Thon mignon, Japan: Koshinaga, China: 小黄鳍鲔, Philippines: Bakulan.
Habitat:
The Tonggol tuna (also known as the long tail tuna) is an epipelagic, predominantly neritic species and are known to avoid very turbid waters and areas with reduced salinity such as estuaries. Long tail tuna may form schools of varying sizes.
Distinctive Features:
The Tonggol tuna is one of the smaller tuna species; the body is at its deepest near the middle of the first dorsal fin base. The second dorsal fin is longer than the first dorsal fin. The pectoral fins are short to moderately long in comparison to other species; the swim bladder is absent or rudimentary.
Coloration:
The lower sides and the belly of tonggol tuna are silvery white with colorless elongate oval spots arranged in horizontally oriented rows. The dorsal, pectoral and pelvic fins have a blackish color, the tip of the second dorsal and the anal fins have a washed yellow color; the anal fin is silvery; the dorsal and anal finlets are yellow with grayish margins; the caudal fin is blackish with streaks of yellowish green.
Size, Age, and Growth:
The maximum fork length of a Tonggol tuna is about 130 cm. In the Indian Ocean common fork lengths range between 40 and 70 cm. The all tackle angling record is a 35.9 kg fish of 136 cm fork length taken at Montagne Island, New South Wales, Australia in 1982.
Reproduction:
Long tail tuna are yet another important species of which there is still very little known about the biology. It is known that they will reach a fork length of about 38 cm at the age of two, around 51 cm by the age of three, and with mature fishes being over 60 cm. Very little is known about the spawning habits of long tail tuna, but in some parts of the world there are two distinct breeding seasons.
Conservation:
The thunnus tonggol is currently not listed as an endangered species in the database of IUCN.
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