Species: Ocyurus chrysurus, Yellowtail Snapper

Ocyurus chrysurus (Bloch, 1791)

Yellowtail Snapper

Body elongate, head pointed, upper and lower profiles similar; front and rear nostrils simple holes; mouth relatively large, top jaw moderately protrusible, slips under cheek bone for most of its length when mouth is closed; one or more rows of pointed conical teeth on jaws,with a few large canines at front; patch of teeth on center of roof of mouth anchor shaped, with a narrow rear extension; each side of roof of mouth with 2 tooth patches; 21-23 lower gill rakers; preopercle serrated, lower margin notched; dorsal continuous, with almost no notch behind spiny part, usually X (rarely IX or XI), 12-13 (rarely14), last ray not elongated; anal fin III, 9 (rarely 8); tail fin deeply forked, with long lobes in large fish; body, cheek and operculum scaly; snout, below eye and both jaws scale-less; bases of soft dorsal and anal fins scaly.

A bright yellow stripe from tip of snout, through eye, back along midline, expanding at rear to cover all of tail base and all of tail fin; color above stripe red, olive or blue; color below stripe pink to white; dorsal, anal and pelvics mainly yellow or yellow green.

Reaches 86.3 cm; 4.1 kg.

Adults on reefs; juveniles over seagrass and weed beds.

Depth range: 0-180 m.

Massachusetts to SE Brazil.