Smalltooth jobfish
Aphareus furca
Illustration: Bloom by Day
A slim silvery purple-brown jobfish with dark edges to both gill-cover bones and a big deeply forked tail. It cruises just off the reef in open water, often alone, and turns away the moment you look at it directly.
how to recognise it
- silvery purplish-brown above, silvery bluish-grey below
- dark margins on both gill-cover bones — the preopercle and the opercle
- whitish to yellowish-brown fins
- small juveniles have a yellow tail
don’t confuse with
- Green jobfish — the green jobfish is dark green to blue-grey with a distinct groove in front of the eye and black blotches on the spiny dorsal
Field marks read from Fishes of Australia, 2026-10-15. Our wording, their facts. Max size 70 cm FL.
facts
- habitat
- reef
- size
- ~45 cm, to 70 cm
Max size from Fishes of Australia (70 cm FL); the typical size is Bluebird’s, not from a cited source
- records
- 52 at 6 spot(s), none of
them in this region
Recorded at Osprey Reef (Coral Sea), Lizard Island — Cod Wall, Bougainville Reef (Coral Sea), Holmes Reef (Coral Sea), Marion Reef (Coral Sea), North Horn (Coral Sea). A count of occurrence records, not abundance. Records are where someone looked.
when it has been recorded
JFMAMJJASOND
A gap means no record in the sample, not absence.
the rule
QLD — Min: 38cm · Limit: 5
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.