No photo available
Midnight snapper
Macolor macularis
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Midnight snapper
- Scientific
- Macolor macularis
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Family
- Lutjanidae (snappers)
- Maximum size
- Up to about 60 cm (total length)
- Depth and habitat
- Coral reefs and reef-associated habitats, recorded from 0 to 90 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2015
Description
A deep-bodied snapper. Adults are dark grey to black with a scattering of small blue spots and lines on the head, while juveniles are a striking black and white with yellow-edged fins. Adults hang in small groups on steep slopes of lagoons, channels and outer reefs, and feed on large zooplankton at night as well as fish and crustaceans.
In the Maldives
FishBase treats this as a Pacific species and notes it may be confused in the literature with the black and white snapper. Maldivian records need checking.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Macolor-macularis.html
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Layang-Layang_diving19.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in MRS 1997 (available chapters), FishBase (country: Maldives) or Dhivehi Wikipedia.