Adults are dark grey with a black face; juveniles are boldly black and white and swim with exaggerated fin movements.
To about 60 cm. Deep and laterally compressed with distinctly pointed rear tips to the dorsal and anal fins. Adults are dark grey-brown above shading to yellow on the head and underside, with fine bluish lines and spots on the head and a golden iris. Juveniles are a completely different animal: black with six to ten white spots on the upper side and very long pointed pelvic fins, which they flick as they swim.
The black-and-white snapper is confused with it even in the literature. Adults: this fish has the bluish head lines, the golden iris and the yellow lower head, and that one has none of them. Juveniles: the pelvic fins are very long and pointed here and short and rounded at every size there.
Nought to ninety metres on steep outer slopes and drop-offs. Adults hang in midwater off the wall in small groups; juveniles are solitary among corals and sponges on sheltered slopes. It feeds mainly at night on large zooplankton, and also fish and crustaceans.
One flag on this entry. FishBase restricts this species to the western Pacific, from the Ryukyus to Australia and Melanesia, and its occurrence in the Indian Ocean was published as a new record in 2015. No source confirms it from the Maldives. A Maldivian Macolor is more likely to be the black-and-white snapper, and this record needs checking against a photograph.
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.