Rosy snapper
Pristipomoides filamentosus
Illustration: Bloom by Day
A lavender-pink deepwater snapper with fine yellow lines and blue dots across the snout and reddish-orange margins on its fins. It lives deeper than most of the reef fish here and is usually met at the bottom of a drop-off rather than on the reef itself.
how to recognise it
- narrow yellow lines and blue dots on the snout and between the eyes
- pale blue to lavender dorsal and tail fins with reddish-orange margins
- brownish to pinkish, lavender or reddish-purple overall
don’t confuse with
- Crimson snapper — OUR crimson snapper. Fishes of Australia lists "Crimson Snapper" as an alias for the rosy snapper too, so the name is not safe to identify by: the crimson snapper is plain pink-red with a small mouth and a steep forehead, and has none of the snout lines or blue dots
- Saddletail snapper — the saddletail is red-orange with a large mouth and a deep body
Field marks read from Fishes of Australia, 2026-10-15. Our wording, their facts. Max size 100 cm TL.
facts
- habitat
- reef
- size
- ~55 cm, to 100 cm
Max size from Fishes of Australia (100 cm TL); the typical size is Bluebird’s, not from a cited source
- records near here
- 2 at 1 of 6 spots
A count of occurrence records near these spots, not abundance. Records are where someone looked.
when it has been recorded
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A gap means no record in the sample, not absence.
the rule
QLD — Min: 38cm · Combined limit: 8 in total of rosy and lavender snapper
source
· verified 2026-10-10
no NSW rule listed — check before you dive
no closed season recorded for this species — that is not the same as open; check the official page
Rules checked 2026-10-13 against qld.gov.au
Rules change. Check before you dive.
Occurrence data: Atlas of Living Australia (ala.org.au), CC-BY 4.0.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.