---
title: Yellowtail Sweeper (Pempheris adusta)
scientific_name: Pempheris adusta
common_name: Yellowtail Sweeper
taxon: Sweepers
published: 2023-12-24T14:51:02.653Z
updated: 2026-08-07T21:01:16.372Z
tags: Yellowtail Sweeper, Pempheris adusta, Sweepers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/sweepers/yellowtail-sweeper
---

# Yellowtail Sweeper (*Pempheris adusta*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sweepers (*Pempheridae*)
- **Size:** up to 13 cm
- **Depth:** 3-40 m
- **Diet:** Planktivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Caves, overhangs and wrecks by day

## How to recognise it

- deep chest tapering to a thin tail - a wedge in profile
- large black spot on the dorsal fin
- dense hovering shoals inside caves and wrecks

The Yellowtail Sweeper, Pempheris adusta, is a wedge-shaped fish, deep across the chest and tapering sharply to a thin caudal peduncle. It possesses a large eye and a short dorsal fin that carries a conspicuous black spot. The colouration ranges from coppery bronze to purple-brown, with the iris prominently rimmed in yellow. A long, low band of an anal fin runs along its underside. Individuals reach a maximum length of approximately 13 cm (5 in).

By day, P. adusta forms dense, slow-milling shoals, sheltering within caves, under overhangs, inside wreck interiors, and in the shaded spaces beneath table corals. After dusk, these shoals disperse, and individuals move into open water above the reef to feed on zooplankton. They return to their diurnal shelters before dawn. The species inhabits depths from 3 to 30 m (10 to 100 ft), though aggregations on wrecks may be found deeper within this range. Red Sea populations of this species have a complex taxonomic history: they were long listed as Pempheris vanicolensis, then described in 2014 as the subspecies Pempheris flavicycla marisrubri, with current taxonomy identifying them as Pempheris adusta.

## Also known as

- **Japanese:** リュウキュウハタンポ, Ryukyuhatampo
- **Russian:** Желтохвостая пемферида

## Scientific synonyms

- *Pempheris adustus* Bleeker, 1877
- *Pempheris flavicycla* Randall, Satapoomin & Alpermann, 2014
- *Pempheris flavicycla flavicycla* Randall, Satapoomin & Alpermann, 2014
- *Pempheris flavicycla marisrubri* Randall, Bogorodsky & Alpermann, 2014

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/sweepers/yellowtail-sweeper)*
*Updated: August 7, 2026*