Head to head
Barracuda vs Pike
Put a barracuda and a pike side by side and most people cannot tell which is which, a slim silver predator with a jutting jaw full of teeth. They are not related. This is one of the clearest examples of convergent evolution in fish.
| Barracuda | Pike | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Sphyraenidae | Esocidae |
| Water | Warm and tropical seas | Cool Northern Hemisphere fresh water |
| Largest | Great barracuda, over 1.7 m | Muskellunge, about 1.8 m |
| Body plan | Rigid torpedo, fins set far back | Rigid torpedo, fins set far back |
| Hunting style | Ambush, one explosive lunge | Ambush, one explosive lunge |
| Teeth | Small gripping plus large cutting fangs | Front fangs plus rows of backward teeth |
| Relationship to each other | Distant; the resemblance is convergent | Distant; the resemblance is convergent |
| Risk to people | Rare bites, usually linked to shiny objects | Rare minor nips, usually while unhooking |
Barracuda vs Pike: common questions
Are barracuda and pike related?
Only very distantly. They are both bony fish, but they sit in different orders that diverged long ago, the barracuda among the advanced spiny-rayed fishes and the pike in a more basal group alongside mudminnows. Their striking similarity is a textbook case of convergent evolution, where natural selection shapes unrelated animals toward the same solution because they face the same problem. In this case the problem is catching other fish by ambush, and the solution is a stiff, streamlined body with the propulsive fins bunched at the rear for a maximum-acceleration start. Sharks and dolphins, and ichthyosaurs before them, converged on a similar overall shape for the same underlying reason.
Which is the faster fish?
Both are built for acceleration rather than sustained speed, and their burst performance is broadly comparable. Estimates put a barracuda's short dash at around 40 to 45 kilometres an hour and a pike's at a similar figure, with the pike often cited as having one of the highest accelerations of any fish from a standing start. Neither can hold that speed; it is a one-shot strike. Over a long distance, fish such as tuna and marlin are far faster than either. The barracuda and the pike are drag racers, not marathon runners.
Is a barracuda or a pike more dangerous to swimmers?
Both pose only a small risk, and for the same underlying reason, they occasionally mistake a pale, moving human extremity for a fish. Barracuda are strongly drawn to flashing, glinting movement, so nearly all of the rare bites involve a swimmer wearing jewellery or a shiny watch, a spearfisher carrying a bleeding catch, or someone feeding fish by hand, and the result is a single deep slash rather than an attack. Pike bites on people are even rarer and milder, usually a nip to a hand or foot of a wader in warm shallow water in summer. In both cases the bite is a case of mistaken identity, and removing shiny objects and avoiding murky shallows removes almost all the risk.