THREAD FINS.
(POLYNEMIDAE.)
These fish are all excellent as food and from some rough isinglass or fish sounds are obtained.
One of our Kurau (Polynemus paradiseus) is the Tupsi fish of India and the Mango fish of Burma. This small fish which attains a length of about 9 inches only, is considered a great luxury both in India and Burma. It has very long filaments, longer than itself, proceeding from each side, just below the pectoral fins.
The common Kurau (P. indicus) attains a length of 4 feet and about 20 lbs. in weight.
The Kurau janggut (P. tetradactylus), which is also known on the Queensland coast by the very unsuitable name "Cooktown Salmon," grows to a very large size.
Day quotes Hamilton Buchanan as observing "I have been assured by a creditable native that he saw one which was a load for six men and which certainly therefore exceeded in weight 320 pounds avoirdupois."
BARRACUDAS.
(SPHYRAENIDAE.)
The Alu-Alu are carnivorous and highly voracious fishes which give good sport with a trolling bait or spinner.
Cantor mentions two species only, S. jello and S. obtusata, as inhabiting the seas off Penang and Singapore but I have a snapshot of one taken by me off Pahang which does not agree with Day's plates of either of these fish and is I think S. novae-hollandiae. It is more than probable that other species will be discovered in these waters.
A well known American game fisherman from Honolulu who visited Singapore recently recognised the fish both in the Singapore market and from the photograph as the Alu-alu of Hawaii.
Roughley[1] writes of Sphyraena novae-hollandiae,
"The Short-finned Pike is an edible fish of very considerable value and is deservedly popular, though it has probably never been tasted by a very great portion of the community.
"It forms one of a too numerous collection of very valuable table fishes which are scarcely utilised, owing to the unenterprising methods adopted in their capture."
- ↑ Fishes of Australia.
