Forms slow-turning schools of hundreds by day and hunts alone at night.
To about 85 cm, silver with a slightly yellow-green back, a large eye, a black spot on the upper edge of the gill cover and white tips on the second dorsal fin lobe. Adults in schooling mode are pale; hunting and courting fish turn near-black. The similar Caranx melampygus is blue-spotted and hunts singly or in small groups.
Daytime schools of dozens to several hundred hold station in current at particular points on a reef and rotate slowly, which is why they are a reliable feature of some sites across years. The school breaks up after dark and the fish hunt small fish individually. A diver approaching low and slowly from below can usually get inside the edge of a school; approaching from above splits it. Recorded from about 5 to 50 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.