Saddletail snapper
Lutjanus malabaricus
Illustration: Bloom by Day
A deep-bodied red-orange snapper with a notably large mouth, often in loose schools over rubble and sponge ground. Young ones carry a dark band across the tail base with a pearly front edge — the saddle the name is for — and big adults lose it.
how to recognise it
- red to red-orange back and sides, paler below, with reddish fins
- a deep body — depth about a third of its length — and a large mouth
- a square-cut tail
- young fish carry a dark band across the tail base with a pearly-white front edge, and a broad oblique dark band from the upper jaw to the start of the dorsal fin; both fade with age
don’t confuse with
- Crimson snapper — the crimson snapper has a small mouth and a steeply rising forehead — its old names are "small-mouth nannygai" and "high-brow sea-perch" — and adults are plain pink-red
- Red emperor — the red emperor keeps three dark bands across the body as a young fish and is a deeper, heavier red
- Snapper — snapper is silvery-pink with blue spots along the back and develops a forehead bump, not a red fish
- Rosy snapper — the rosy snapper is lavender-pink with blue snout dots and filamentous last dorsal and anal rays
Field marks read from FishBase, 2026-10-15. Our wording, their facts. Max size 100.0 cm TL.
facts
- habitat
- reef
- size
- ~50 cm, to 100 cm
Max size from FishBase (100.0 cm TL); the typical size is Bluebird’s, not from a cited source
- records near here
- 1 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: 40cm · Combined limit: 9 in total of crimson and saddletail 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.