Cobia Rachycentron canadum

Cobia Rachycentron canadum are good sized saltwater fish (100 pounds max) that is very similar in appearance to both sharks and remoras. Close examination however reveals very distinct differences which max positive identification a snap. But even so that first pass by the boat my have you scratching your head.

Cobia can easily be distinguished from sharks in that the cobia's lower jaws extends past the upper jaw. Also cobia can be easily distinguished for remoras by their lack of a sucker device on the head and the first part of the cobia's dorsal fin is simply a series of very short spines.

When cobia are small as the one in this picture is, they will have very distinct white horizontal stripes. After they get a little size this stripe becomes less and less distinct.

Pictured here is an even smaller one. This little fellow is only a couple of inches long! Notice the tail of the baby is quite unlike that of larger cobia. It maybe small in this picture but cobia are extremely fast growers and experiments are being conducted right now testing the fesibility of raising them offshore commercially.