Milkfish
Amazing fact
When its skin is injured, a milkfish releases a substance that warns other fish to hide.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
When its skin is injured, a milkfish releases a substance that warns other fish to hide.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Milkfish
- Scientific name
- Chanos chanos
- Japanese name
- サバヒー
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Gonorynchiformes
- Family
- Chanidae
- Genus
- Chanos
A fish that lives from Japan south of Kochi Prefecture to Taiwan, the Philippines, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
How the Milkfish lives
As larvae, they eat zooplankton. Growing juveniles start eating food on the bottom, including algae and small crustaceans. Adults also eat small fish. Large schools are seen near coasts with well-developed reefs and in coastal lagoons.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Range
- Taiwan, the Philippines, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and elsewhere
Where the Milkfish 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
- サバヒー
- 简体中文
- 遮目鱼
- 繁體中文
- 遮目魚
- 한국어
- 젖빛고기
- Español
- Sabalote
- Français
- Poisson-lait
- Deutsch
- Milchfisch
- Italiano
- Cefalone
- العربية
- سلماني
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan bandeng
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá măng sữa
- Русский
- Ханос
- Türkçe
- Süt balığı
- বাংলা
- চেনোচ
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 — サバヒーChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Chanos chanosChecked: 2026-11-06
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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