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Mangrove Jack
Lutjanus argentimaculatus (Forsskål, 1775)
A Mangrove Jack at a depth of 30 m, Wreck of the President Coolidge, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, July 2003. Photo: E. Schlögl. View larger image.
D. Lindsay with a Mangrove Jack caught off Sudbury Reef, northern Queensland.
The Mangrove Jack is greenish brown to reddish. Juveniles have pale bars on the sides of the body and one or two blue lines on the cheeks.
This species has an emarginate caudal fin and scale rows on the back that are roughly parallel to the lateral line.
It grows to 1.2 m in length.
Juveniles usually live in mangrove estuaries and freshwater streams. Adults live on deeper offshore reefs down to depths of at least 100 m.
The Mangrove Jack occurs in tropical and some warm temperate marine waters of the Indo-West and Central Pacific.
In Australia it is known from the central coast of Western Australia, around the tropical north of the country and south to the central coast of New South Wales.
The Mangrove Jack looks similar to the Red Bass. The Red Bass has a lower spinous dorsal fin, scale rows on the back that rise obliquely from the lateral line, a deep groove from the nostrils to the eyes and generally darker colouration.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Related links
- Blacktail Snapper factsheet
- Humpback Snapper factsheet
- Moses Perch factsheet
- Red Bass factsheet
- View the Coral Snappers list
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
