Fish of the Xiphias genus of the Xiphiidae family of the Istiophoriformes order of the Percomorpha clade of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Swordfish. Photo © Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (S. Iglesias). fishbase.org)
Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It may be up to 455 centimeters long and weigh 650 kilograms. It usually prefers to swim at depths of up to 550 meters. It feeds mainly on pelagic fish, squid, and crustaceans.
(Swordfish. Photo by © Pierre Jaquet. flickr.com/photos/pierre_et_nelly)
Is a permanent inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea.
It is included in the IUCN Red List as an Endangered Species (EN).
Names of swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in other languages as follows:
Peshku shpatë, Peshku shtize (Albanian), Риба меч (Riba mech) (Bulgarian), Kardhal (Hungarian), Zwaardvis (Dutch), Ξιφίας (Xifias) (Greek), Dag haherev (Hebrew), Pez espada (Spanish), Pesce spada (Italian), Schwertfisch (German), Włócznik, Miecznik (Polish), Espadarte (Portuguese), Pește spadă (Romanian), Рыба–меч (Ryba–mjech) (Russian), Sabljarka, Iglun (Serbian, Croatian), Mečarica (Slovenian), Kılıç balığı (Turkish), Espadon (French), Mečoun obecný (Czech).