The bigeye trevally is distributed throughout the tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, ranging from South Africa in the west to California and Ecuador in the east, including Australia to the south and Japan in the north. 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. Juvenile bigeye trevally has been reported in rivers from several locations and is known to penetrate well into the upper reaches of rivers. As the fish grows, it moves back to deeper waters over reefs.