Bluelined Snapper

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The fish species Lutjanus kasmira is known under many different names in English, including Bluelined Snapper, Blue-striped Snapper, Bluebanded snapper, Blue-banded Snapper, Bluestripe Snapper, Bluestriped Snapper, Common Blue-strips Snapper, Common Blue-Striped Snapper, Common Bluestripe Snapper, Blue-lined Snapper Fish, Blue-lined Sea Perch, Bluestripe Seaperch, Blue-striped Seaperch, Blue-striped Sea Perch, and Yellow and Blue Seaperch.

The Bluelined Snapper is not only a popular aquarium fish; it is also an appreciated food fish. Reports of ciguatera poisoning exist.

Lutjanus kasmira has not been evaluated for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Geographical distribution, habitat and habits

The Bluelined Snapper lives in the Indo-Pacific and Southeast Atlantic. Its geographical range stretches from East Africa and the Red Sea to the Marquesas and Line islands. The northernmost specimens inhabit the waters off southern Japan, while the southernmost specimens are found off the coast of Australia. In the Southeast Atlantic, Bluelined Snappers are found in South African waters. The geographical range for this species extends from 35°N to 35°S and from 31°E to 134°W.   

The Bluelined Snapper has been introduced to new regions by man, e.g. to Hawaii where it was introduced as a food fish in the 1950s.

The Bluelined Snapper inhabits coral reefs and can be encountered in both shallow lagoons and on outer reef slopes. It can venture really far down; its depth range is 3-265 meters / 10-870 feet. Juveniles live in sea grass beds located near patch reefs.

The Bluelined Snapper lives in schools and can form large aggregations around coral formations, wrecks and caves during the day.  

Size and appearance

The largest scientifically measured Bluelined Snapper was 40.0 cm / 15.7 in.

The Bluelined Snapper is usually bright yellow on the upper two-thirds of the side and white ventrally. The fins are also (mostly) yellow and the body is adorned with four lateral blue stripes that extend lengthwise along the body. Ventrally, you can see four fine grey stripes.

Bluelined Snapper care

This fish forms large schools in the wild and should therefore be kept in groups of at least 6-8 fishes in the aquarium. If your aquarium is large enough, you can also include other peaceful fish species in the tank but this might lead to some aggression from the Bluelined Snapper group. Ideally introduce all the fish simultaneously since this decreases the risk of violence. Do not crowd the aquarium because this will increase the risk of aggressive behaviour. The aquarium must provide the fish with plenty of open space to swim around in. Since these fishes grow so large, they are not very common in the aquarium trade. Some aquarists keep single specimens, but living alone without a group of its own species is not natural for the Bluelined Snapper.  

The Bluelined Snapper is not considered reef compatible since it is fond of eating many different types of crustaceans, such as crabs and shrimps. It will also eat small fish. 

Feeding Bluelined Snapper 

In the wild, the Bluelined Snapper feeds on fishes, crabs, shrimps, stomatopods, cephalopods, planktonic crustaceans, and different types of algae.

In the aquarium, you can for instance give it fish and crustaceans plus algae and algae based foods. It is not a very finicky eater and will eat most types of live, fresh and frozen foods. Some specimens will even eat dry food. 

Breeding Bluelined Snapper 

We have no information about breeding Bluelined Snappers.