Japanese flyingfish

Amazing fact

Cheilopogon agoo has a dark blue back and a white belly.

국립해양생물자원관

Japanese flyingfish in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

It is said to leap out of the water to escape animals that hunt it, such as tuna.

Source鳥羽水族館 — トビウオ

THE REAL WORLD

The real Japanese flyingfish

Scientific name: Cheilopogon agoo
Japanese name: トビウオ
Group: Ocean animals

Order: Beloniformes
Family: Exocoetidae
Genus: Cheilopogon

Facts about the real animal.

A fish that lives along the coasts of southern Japan and in subtropical to temperate parts of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

鳥羽水族館 — トビウオ

It leaps out of the water, spreads its pectoral fins like wings, and glides over the sea.

鳥羽水族館 — トビウオ

It is said to leap out of the water to escape animals that hunt it, such as tuna.

鳥羽水族館 — トビウオ

How the Japanese flyingfish lives

It lives near the surface of the open sea. It mainly eats animal plankton, such as small crustaceans drifting in the water. From spring into summer, it lays eggs that stick to surfaces in coastal waters.

국립해양생물자원관

Basic data

Range: Southern Japanese coast and subtropical to temperate Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans

鳥羽水族館

Where the Japanese flyingfish has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan World oceans Ocean Coasts

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: トビウオ
简体中文: 燕鳐须唇飞鱼
繁體中文: 阿戈鬚唇飛魚
한국어: 날치
Português (Brasil): Peixe-voador-japonês
Русский: Японская летучая рыба

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 — トビウオChecked: 2026-11-04
국립해양생물자원관 — 날치 Cheilopogon agoo (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846)Checked: 2026-11-09

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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