Paradise Threadfin

This Indo-West Pacific fish is found from Pakistan to Vietnam. It enters freshwater during the breeding season so it's sometimes listed as a freshwater fish. It can get over 10 inches long but the photo specimen was 8-1/4 inches and weighed 3.3 ounces. Another in the package of frozen fish from Vietnam was 10-1/2 inches and 7.9 ounces but was not photographed because the tail fins had been clipped to fit the package.

More on the Threadfin Family.

This is an excellent eating fish with mostly white flesh of good flavor. It is excellent for frying, baking and steaming, though I prefer it fried skin-on with a light dusting of rice flour and salt.

Buying:   Threadfins are common in the Asian fish markets here in Los Angeles, smaller ones in bags in the frozen food cases, larger ones frozen in bulk or on ice.

Scales:   Paradise Threadfin is completely covered with small scales that scrape off easily.

Cleaning:   There are no special problems in cleaning except that you may have to use long nose pliers to pull the gills from smaller fish.

Filleting: is easy, though this small fish could be fried whole or pan dressed. The rib cage is no problem because it barely has any ribs. The fillet can just be pulled off when you get down to the ribs.

Skin:   While the skin is easily removed using the standard long knife and cutting board technique there is no reason to do so. Skin shrink in frying is very little and the skin is thin with no strong or oily flavor.

Yield:   Yield is decent, with a 3.3 ounce fish yielding 1.4 ounces (42%). The fillet weight is skin-on because I see no reason whatever to skin this fish.