A yellow-striped snapper with one black spot high on the flank; shoals under jetties.
To about 35 cm, silver-white with six or seven narrow yellow stripes along the flanks and a round black blotch high on the side below the rear of the dorsal fin, partly above the lateral line. The similar Lutjanus russellii has a larger blotch centred on the lateral line and fewer stripes; the two shoal together and are regularly confused.
It forms loose shoals of tens under jetties, around wreckage and along rubble edges by day, and disperses at night to take crustaceans and small fish. Juveniles use mangroves and estuaries. It is one of the most numerous snappers at the muck destinations and tolerates turbid water well. Recorded from about 1 to 35 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.