Tripletail
Amazing fact
As a tripletail grows older, its forehead becomes more deeply curved inward.
Florida Museum of Natural History
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
As a tripletail grows older, its forehead becomes more deeply curved inward.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Tripletail
- Scientific name
- Lobotes surinamensis
- Japanese name
- マツダイ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Perciformes
- Family
- Lobotidae
- Genus
- Lobotes
Where the name “Tripletail” comes from
The English name tripletail comes from its dorsal and anal fins resembling its tail fin.
Florida Museum of Natural HistoryA fish of the seas around Japan, the coasts of Taiwan and China, and the temperate to tropical Pacific.
Young fish look just like dead leaves or tree bark, and stay close to driftwood and drifting seaweed.
How the Tripletail lives
In summer, it also occurs in bays and places where river water meets the sea. It eats small fish, shrimp and crabs. It usually lives alone, but sometimes forms schools. Along the Gulf of Mexico coast, it moves south in winter.
Florida Museum of Natural HistoryTexas Parks and Wildlife DepartmentBasic data
- Range
- Hokkaido to southern Kyushu, Seto Inland Sea, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, temperate and tropical Pacific except the east, and elsewhere
Where the Tripletail has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- マツダイ
- 简体中文
- 松鲷
- 繁體中文
- 松鯛
- 한국어
- 백미돔
- Español
- Dormilona Del Atlántico
- Français
- Dormeur
- Deutsch
- Dreischwanzbarsch
- Português (Brasil)
- Perca-folha-do-Atlântico
- Italiano
- Pesce foglia
- العربية
- ثلاثي الذيل الأطلسي
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Kakap telessi
- Русский
- Суринамский лобот
- Türkçe
- Üçkuyruk
- ไทย
- ปลากะพงดำ
- বাংলা
- আটলান্টিক তিনলেজা কই
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — マツダイChecked: 2026-11-04
- Florida Museum of Natural History — TripletailChecked: 2026-11-07
- Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis)Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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