Striped Mullet

Distribution: Cosmopolitan

Size Length: Around 50cm

Age of maturity: 3 years

Life expectancy: Around 10 years

Diet: Omnivore

Social life: School

IUCN red list status: Least concern



Stripped-mullet (Mugil cephalus) is a fish with very good adaptations to many known environments. They are known to being capable of living from places where the water is very salty up to freshwater courses like rivers and estuaries. That capability of adaptation leads to having an easy way of living with humans in the most toxic environments to many species such as seaport waters.

The reproduction might occur anytime of the year depending on the temperature and nutrients, it might occur also in any sea it lives. During the mating, around 500 thousand to 2 millions eggs are laid and the fecundity is external. The mating occurs only once by each school.

They are known to leap of water many times, from which there are two hypotheses, being one that they leap out of the water to avoid predators and the other hypothesis is that they leap out of water in low dissolved oxygen zones to clean their gills.