Sport fishermen seek them due to their beauty, size, food quality, and healthy population. Mahi-mahi are highly sought for sport fishing and commercial purposes. ( June 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. The body is slightly slender and long, making them fast swimmers they can swim as fast as 50 knots (92.6 km/h, 57.5 mph). Their flesh is grey-white when raw, cooking to an attractive white with a clean, non-fishy flavour. Mahi-mahi fish are mostly found in the surface water. In waters at 28 ☌/83 ☏, mahi-mahi larvae are found year-round, with greater numbers detected in spring and fall. Females may spawn two to three times per year, and produce between 80,000 and 1,000,000 eggs per event.
Spawning can occur at body lengths of 20 cm (7.9 in). Males and females are sexually mature in their first year, usually by the age of 4–5 months. They have also been known to eat zooplankton. Mahi-mahi are carnivorous, feeding on flying fish, crabs, squid, mackerel, and other forage fish.
Young Mahi Mahi migrate past Malta where they are called Lampuki and Sicily where they are known as Lampuga or Capone there they are fished using nets and floating mats of palm leaves under which they collect. They spawn in warm ocean currents throughout much of the year, and their young are commonly found in rafts of Sargassum weeds. Mahi-mahi are among the fastest-growing of fish. They rarely exceed 15 kg (33 lb), and mahi-mahi over 18 kg (40 lb) are exceptional. Catches typically are 7 to 13 kg (15 to 29 lb) and a meter in length. Mahi-mahi can live for up to five years, although they seldom exceed four. Out of the water, the fish often change color (giving rise to their Spanish name, dorado, "golden"), going through several hues before finally fading to a muted yellow-grey upon death. The pectoral fins of the mahi-mahi are iridescent blue. They are distinguished by dazzling colors - golden on the sides, and bright blues and greens on the sides and back. Their caudal fins and anal fins are sharply concave. Mature males have prominent foreheads protruding well above the body proper. Mahi-mahi have compressed bodies and a single long-based dorsal fin extending from the head almost to the tail. Synonyms for the species include Coryphaena argyrurus, Coryphaena chrysurus, and Coryphaena dolfyn. Linnaeus named the genus, derived from the Greek word, κορυφή, koryphe, meaning top or apex, in 1758.
In the Mediterranean island of Malta, the mahi-mahi is referred to as the lampuka. In parts of the Pacific and along the English-speaking coast of South Africa, the mahi-mahi is commonly referred to by its name in Spanish, dorado. Though the species is also referred to as the common dolphinfish, the use of "dolphin" can be misleading as they are not related to dolphins see Coryphaena for the possible etymologies of "dolphinfish".
By chance in Persian, mahi (ماهی) means fish, but the word mahi in Hawaiian has nothing to do with the Persian language. The name mahi-mahi comes from the Hawaiian language and means "very strong", through the process of reduplication.