---
title: Black Snapper (Macolor niger)
scientific_name: Macolor niger
common_name: Black Snapper
taxon: Snappers
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-12T22:40:47.265Z
updated: 2026-08-13T20:30:23.743Z
tags: Black Snapper, Macolor niger, Snappers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/snappers/black-snapper
---

# Black Snapper (*Macolor niger*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Snappers (*Lutjanidae*)
- **Size:** up to 75 cm
- **Depth:** 2-90 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Steep outer reef and drop-offs, usually in current
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- adults uniform sooty gray-black, deep-bodied, in slow groups off the wall
- juveniles black and white in bold blotches, with enormous trailing pelvic fins
- adult head profile steep, the eye set high
- length up to 75 cm

Two fish in one card. The adult is a sooty gray-black slab hanging off a wall in a slow group of a dozen, unremarkable except for how dark it is against the blue. The juvenile is a black and white harlequin with pelvic fins so long they trail behind it like streamers, drifting alone over coral, and nothing about the two suggests a relationship.

That difference does work. A young fish standing out in bold black and white, with fins that break its outline into pieces, is not trying to hide - it is advertising that it is not worth chasing, and it moves slowly enough to make the point. As it grows the pattern is dropped and the fish joins a group, which is a different defense with the same purpose.

Adults feed at night on the plankton and small fish that the current brings up a wall, which is why they hold on the outer reef where water moves. By day they idle, facing into the flow, and let divers approach closer than most snappers will.

They are long-lived and slow to mature, and where spearfishing is heavy the big groups are the first thing to go.

## Also known as

- **English:** black and white snapper, Black and White Seaperch, Black Beauty
- **Arabic:** Hamrah
- **French:** Perche blanche et noire, Perche de minuit noire, Lutjan Noir
- **Italian:** Azzannatore nero
- **German:** Schwarzer Schnapper, Schwarzweiß-Schnapper
- **Spanish:** Pargo Blanco y Negro, Pargo domino
- **Portuguese:** Macolor-do-sul
- **Dutch:** Zwarte Snapper
- **Czech:** chňapal černobílý
- **Japanese:** マダラタルミ, Madaratarumi
- **Chinese:** 琉球黑毛, 黑加脊, 黑加誌
- **Russian:** Чёрный маколор
- **DA:** Sort og hvid snapper

## Scientific synonyms

- *Diacope macolor* Lesson, 1827
- *Macolor macolor* (Lesson, 1827)
- *Macolor typus* Bleeker, 1860
- *Sciaena nigra* Forsskål, 1775

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, East Africa, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/snappers/black-snapper)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*