🗡️Photo: Charles Frederick Holder · Public domain
🗡️Swordfish
The swordfish, also known as the broadbill in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, sword-like, pointed bill. They are the sole member of the family Xiphiidae. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category. Swordfish are elongated, round-bodied, and lose all teeth and scales by adulthood. These fish are found widely in tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and can typically be found from near the surface to a depth of 550 m (1,800 ft), and exceptionally up to depths of 2,878 m (9,442 ft). They commonly reach 3 m (10 ft) in length, and the maximum reported is 4.55 m in length and 650 kg (1,430 lb) in weight.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2022.
- Body mass
- 650 kg
- Body length
- 3 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- not recorded
Everything we know about the Swordfish
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass650 kgmaximum recordedFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Body length3 mrecord 4.55 m · FishBasetypical adultFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Record: largest individual on record
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Trophic level4.53FishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04, estimate table · CC BY-NC 4.0
DietcarnivoreaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
From trophic level 4.53 (FishBase): <2.2 herbivore, 2.2–2.8 omnivore, >2.8 carnivore.
Volume l650 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Swordfish yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.
Family tree
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- orderIstiophoriformes
- familyXiphiidae
- genusXiphias
All 12 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- classActinopteri
- subclassNeopterygii
- orderAcanthomorphata
- orderIstiophoriformes
- familyXiphiidae
- genusXiphias
More about the Swordfish
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