False Fusilier

Scientific Name: Paracaesio sordida
Family: Snappers - Lutjanidae
Maximum Size: 40cm
Identification: Purplish brown to blue with faint dark stripes, lower lobe of tail red (dark brown underwater); slender elongate body with deeply forked tail similar to fusilier family.
Favourite: Form schools.
Hide-out: Steep outer reefs in 30-200m.
Location: Indo-West Pacific - Red Sea to S.W. Japan, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

Yellowtail False Fusilier

Scientific Name: Paracaesio xanthura
Family: Snappers - Lutjanidae
Maximum Size: 40cm
Identification: Blue with yellow area on back extending from forehead to tail; similar Yellowback Fusilier distinguished by a black spot on pectoral fin base.
Favourite: Form schools.
Hide-out: Below diver depths in tropics, but 10-50m in subtropics.
Location: Indo-West Pacific - Red Sea to S.W. Japan, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.