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Yellow Striped Emperor
Lethrinus obsoletus (Forsskål, 1775)
A Yellow Striped Emperor at a depth of 13m, Ribbon Reef #3, Great Barrier Reef north of Port Douglas, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.
The Yellow Striped Emperor has a light tan to olive body. A broad yellow stripe extends from the pectoral fin base to the caudal fin.
Sometimes adult Yellow Striped Emperor exhibit a mottled brown colouration or have no markings.
This species grows to 60cm in length. The maximum known age of a Yellow Striped Emperor is 14 years.
Yellow Striped Emperor inhabit seagrass beds, lagoons and reefs, and adjacent areas of sand and rubble. It is often seen in groups or as solitary individuals and may be seen sheltering in branching coral during the day.
It is found at depths from 3m to 100m.
The Yellow Striped Emperor feeds primarily on molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms.
It occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West Pacific, from the Red Sea and the north-eastern coast of Africa, throughout South-east Asia and Micronesia, north to Japan, south to Australia and east to Tonga and Samoa.
In Australia it is known from off north-western Western Australia and the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 220.
- Carpenter, K.E. & G.R. Allen, 1989. FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 9. Emperor fishes and large-eye breams of the world (family Lethrinidae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of lethrinid species known to date.. FAO Species Synopsis. No. 125(9): Pp. 118.
- Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 330.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 251.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2006
Page researched and compiled by
K. Parkinson & M. McGrouther, September 2003.
