FishOccasional

Rainbow runner

Elagatis bipinnulata

Streaking through the blue in stripes of azure and gold, the rainbow runner is one of open water's fastest, most elegant hunters.

Photo: iNaturalist – (c) Adam, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Adam

The rainbow runner (Elagatis bipinnulata) is the streamlined, torpedo-bodied cousin of the trevallies. Its back is deep blue, its flank painted with a golden band running between two light-blue stripes – hence the name. Adults reach 70–100 cm and patrol the blue water off the reef walls.

It is a true nomad: attached to no single reef, it roams the current-swept walls in schools large and small, hunting sardines, squid and crustaceans. A school sweeping through the blue in silver flashes is a mesmerising sight – often in the company of tuna or bigger trevallies.

Around Hurghada your chances are best on the deeper, current-swept outer reefs: schools streak past in the blue off the walls of Carless Reef and Umm Gamar, typically above your safety stop or along the reef edge. Keep one eye on the blue – rainbow runners always arrive from there.

Did you know?

The rainbow runner has been clocked at up to 60 km/h – and it so loves swimming with bigger animals that its schools sometimes fall in beside sharks or even dolphins as "training partners".

Where can you meet it?

On the outer, current-swept reefs: schools pass through the blue at Carless Reef and Umm Gamar, more rarely along the Small Giftun wall.

Frequently asked questions

Not among the corals – in the blue! At the reef edge, turn your back on the wall now and then and scan the open water; runner schools arrive from there.

Because it is a guest of the deeper, open-water walls and rarely enters shallow lagoons. To meet it, dive the outer reefs where there is some current.