About Alepes vari (Cuvier, 1833)
The herring scad (Alepes vari) has a body shape very similar to other members of the genus Alepes, with a strongly compressed, ovate body. The ventral and dorsal profiles of the fish are almost evenly convex, and meet at the front at a pointed snout. It has two separate dorsal fins: the first has 8 spines, while the second has one spine followed by 24 to 27 soft rays. The anal fin is made up of two small, anteriorly detached spines, followed by a single spine connected to 20 to 23 soft rays. The lateral line is strongly arched anteriorly; the junction of its curved and straight sections lies between the origin of the second dorsal fin and the third soft ray. The curved section of the lateral line holds 42 to 50 scales and 0 to 2 scutes, while the straight section holds 0 to 7 scales and 48 to 69 scutes. A well-developed adipose eyelid covers the posterior half of the eye. The jaws hold a single row of numerous comb-like teeth. This species has 32 to 38 gill rakers and a total of 24 vertebrae. The herring scad is the largest species in the genus Alepes by a significant margin, reaching a maximum total length of 56 cm, though most individuals are smaller than 30 cm. Its upper body is ash blue, fading to silvery white on the underside, with a diffuse dusky blotch on the margin of the operculum. All fins are dusky, except the spinous dorsal fin which ranges from pale to dark dusky. The amount of dark pigment in the fins is sexually dimorphic: males have darker spinous dorsal fins, darker lobes on the soft dorsal and anal fins, and darker pelvic fins than females. The herring scad is distributed across tropical to subtropical regions of the Indo-West Pacific. It has been recorded from the Red Sea, eastward to Sri Lanka, India, Southeast Asia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea, reaching as far north as Taiwan and as far south as northern Australia. It is most common in shallow coastal areas, where it lives in the surface layers of the ocean over a wide range of substrates.
