---
title: Smalltooth Jobfish (Aphareus furca)
scientific_name: Aphareus furca
common_name: Smalltooth Jobfish
taxon: Snappers
published: 2026-08-09T21:03:20.193Z
updated: 2026-08-09T21:24:09.094Z
tags: Smalltooth Jobfish, Aphareus furca, Snappers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/snappers/smalltooth-jobfish
---

# Smalltooth Jobfish (*Aphareus furca*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Snappers (*Lutjanidae*)
- **Size:** up to 70 cm
- **Depth:** 6-120 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open water over reef slopes and drop-offs
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- slender silvery-blue body with a deeply forked tail
- jaw extends well past the eye, giving a long-faced look
- swims in open water rather than over the reef
- length up to 70 cm

A slender silvery-blue snapper with a deeply forked tail and a jaw that runs well past the eye, giving it a longer face than any of its relatives here. It reaches about 70 cm (28 in) and hunts in open water along slopes and drop-offs rather than working the reef surface.

The long jaws and reduced teeth go with a different technique: instead of grabbing prey from cover it runs down small fish in midwater, often in fast passes at the edge of visibility. Divers see it as a pale shape cruising past on a wall dive, singly or in small groups, usually deeper than 20 m (65 ft). It is taken by hook and line throughout its range but has none of the commercial weight of the larger snappers, and reef populations here look intact.

## Also known as

- **English:** Small-toothed Jobfish, small toothed jobfish, Blue Smalltooth Job, Blue Smalltooth Jobfish
- **French:** Vivaneau à Queue Fourchue, Aphareus bleuâtre, Perche ardoise
- **Italian:** Lutiano denti piccoli
- **Spanish:** Pargo de boca grande, Pargo boquidulce
- **Portuguese:** Caranha-de-Bali
- **Czech:** chňapal malozubý
- **Japanese:** イシフエダイ, Ishifuedai
- **Chinese:** 叉尾鯛, 叉尾鲷, 小齒藍鯛
- **Russian:** Афарей мелкозубый
- **DA:** Småtandet snapper
- **MSA:** Kerisi bali
- **TGL:** Bisugo

## Scientific synonyms

- *Aphareus caerulescens* Cuvier, 1830
- *Aphareus flavivultus* Jenkins, 1901
- *Aphareus furcatus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Caranxomorus sacrestinus* Lacepède, 1803
- *Labrus furca* Lacepède, 1801

## Range

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

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/snappers/smalltooth-jobfish)*
*Updated: August 9, 2026*