Fish
Largehead Hairtail
Trichiurus lepturus
A long, ribbon-thin, mirror-silver predator that tapers to a hair-fine tail, hunting in murky coastal and estuarine water.
Also known as beltfish, cutlass fish, cutlassfish, hairtail, ribbonfish
- Typical size
- Commonly 60-100 cm long
- Habitat
- Murky coastal water, estuaries and over soft bottoms
- Depth
- Surface to about 100 m
The largehead hairtail, widely called the cutlassfish or ribbonfish, is an unmistakable eel-like predator with a flattened, band-shaped silver body, a mouth full of fang-like teeth and no true tail fin, ending instead in a fine whip-like point. Its bright metallic sheen comes from a delicate skin pigment that rubs off easily when handled.
Hairtails hunt smaller fish and squid, often hanging vertically in the water column and moving into shallow, turbid coastal and estuarine water along the KZN and Eastern Cape coast. Their needle-sharp teeth deserve respect when unhooking or handling. Though caught by anglers, they are more often a bycatch than a target, and their soft flesh is well regarded eating.