Tailor like to swim in warm currents of water that move north along the east and west coasts of Australia in winter and then swim south to cooler areas in summer. The warm water is also home to schools of pilchards that the tailor like to eat.

Large tailor are sometimes found travelling with salmon schools along the south coast. The tailors elongated smooth body and powerful tail allows the tailor to move very fast to catch their prey. Adult tailor like to eat most sea creatures including garfish, mackerel, mullet and even other tailor. Tailor are efficient killing machines, together with the greedy way in which tailor eat, by tearing their prey to shreds with their razor-sharp teeth, has led people to name them ‘choppers'. They are known to have feeding frenzies on schools of fish, at times this can be seen by people from the beach.

Tailor live in rivers and estuaries during the summer season. The winter rains make the rivers and estuaries less salty and the tailor don’t like it. So in winter they move out to the ocean where it is salty. Adult tailor swim long distances. Research has shown that they can swim 240km in just 21 days.

Juvenile tailor like to eat small fish like whitebait, blue pilchards, whiting, anchovies and crustaceans.

Not much is known about the life cycle and movements of tailor. Research is currently being done. One researcher is using the otolith (ear bone) to find out more, including where the tailor come from and possibly their life history and migration patterns.

Each year the tailor spawn. Females can lay between 370 000 to 1.2 million eggs. This depends on the size of the female, small females lay less eggs. The young tailor can grow almost half a centimeter a day! Tailor can grow to a jumbo size of ten kilos, at this size it is believed to be about 20 years old! One massive tailor, found in the Shark Bay area weighed 14 kilos!

Scientfic and other names
Tailor (Pomatomus saltatrix) are also commonly named elf or shad in South Africa, bluefish in America, snapper, fatback, snap mackerel, skipjack and greenfish in other parts of the world. In Western Australia we name them according to their size. Razorbacks for fish up to 250grams, choppers for tailor up to 1 kilo and jumbos for tailor over 3 kilos.

What they look like
Tailor are a silvery fish with a greenish or bluish tinge on the back, depending on area or habitat. The fins are pale green with a tinge of yellow. Tailor have strong, sharp teeth and a protruding lower jaw. They grow to a size of about 15 cm by the end of their first year and over 60 cm total length by the age of five years. They are reported to reach a maximum size of 120 cm total length and 14 kg.

Where they live
In Western Australia, tailor appear from Carnarvon and south along the coastline to Geographe Bay. Tailor like to move along the surf zone and are often found around rocky outcrops and headlands and reefs along the shoreline. Offshore reefs are another prime habitat, especially for bigger tailor. Tailor prefer water between the temperatures of 20º C and 25º C.

Juveniles prefer protected inshore waters, bays and estuaries. Young tailor are present in the Swan River and other west coast estuaries during the dry summer months. They are eventually forced out of the rivers and estuaries and into the ocean during winter due to rainwater run off that increases the amount of fresh water.