It is predominantly an inshore fish, inhabiting reefs down to depths of around 100 m in both coastal zones and offshore islands, often venturing into estuaries and sandy bays as juveniles.

The bigeye trevally is commonly found in large slow moving schools during the day, becoming active at night when it feeds, taking a variety of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and other invertebrates.

[2] The species was first properly scientifically described by the French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1825 from a specimen collected off Waigeo, Indonesia which was designated to be the holotype.

In his massive ichthyological volume entitled Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, Georges Cuvier managed to assign no less than four junior synonyms to the species,[6] while the most recent renaming was by Yojiro Wakiya in 1924, who applied the name Caranx oshimai.

[2] The bigeye trevally is one of the larger members of Caranx, growing to a maximum recorded size of 120 cm in length and 18.0 kg in weight.

[7][11] The bigeye trevally is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of both the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

[11] In the Indian Ocean, it ranges from South Africa and Madagascar in the west, along the east African coastline up to both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

In the Pacific Ocean, the bigeye trevally inhabits most of the tropical island groups including Hawaii,[13] with its range extending east to the western American coastline.

[11] The bigeye trevally predominantly live in inshore coastal waters, although does occur in pelagic settings far offshore, and around remote islands and seamounts.

The species is known to reach depths of around 100 m.[2] It is mostly found over coral and rocky reef complexes as adults, however often moves into more inshore areas in sandy bays and lagoons in small numbers.

[15] Juveniles inhabit more inshore, shallower waters around the coast, often venturing into lagoons, tidal flats, mangrove zones[16] and even estuaries.

[9] This contrasts to most jacks, which are generally diurnal hunters, although the species has been documented hunting in shallower waters during the day, especially as juveniles.

[5] The species predominantly takes small fish as prey,[5][23] however supplements its diet with a varied array of invertebrates.

These include crustaceans such as shrimps, decapods, copepods and stomatopods, cephalopods, gastropods, jellyfish, sponges and even species of open ocean sea-skater insects.

[25] Spawning is known to occur between July and September in the east Pacific[21] and in November to March in South Africa,[5] indicating variation across the species range.

[21] The trevally then press their ventral surfaces together to spawn, often swimming almost horizontally, before returning to the school and changing back to their normal silvery colour.

[27] The larvae of bigeye trevally have been extensively described, with defining features being a conspicuously pigmented supraoccipital crest, relatively deep body and an anal fin ray count of 15 to 17, the lowest of any east Pacific carangid.

DNA analysis confirmed a hybrid between C. sexfasciatus and C. melampygus, which has been difficult to explain due to the two species vastly different lifestyles and spawning characteristics.

The all tackle world record stands at 14.30 kg (31 lb 8 oz) caught off Poivre Island in the Seychelles.

[35] The bigeye trevally's edibility is said to range from fair[12] to very good,[33] with frying, steaming, grilling and even use in soup popular in some South East Asian countries.

[32] Apart from fishing, the species is popular with scuba divers which often photograph the huge schools that mill around reefs during the day.