---
title: Japanese Threadfin Bream (Nemipterus japonicus)
scientific_name: Nemipterus japonicus
common_name: Japanese Threadfin Bream
taxon: Threadfin breams
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-13T22:17:05.981Z
updated: 2026-08-12T08:45:18.448Z
tags: Japanese Threadfin Bream, Nemipterus japonicus, Threadfin breams, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/threadfin-breams/japanese-threadfin-bream
---

# Japanese Threadfin Bream (*Nemipterus japonicus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Threadfin breams (*Nemipteridae*)
- **Size:** up to 34 cm
- **Depth:** 5-80 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Soft bottom away from reef, over sand and mud
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- pink-silver body with a yellow stripe along the flank and a red-edged eye
- upper lobe of the tail drawn out into a long trailing filament
- over open sand and mud rather than on the reef
- length up to 34 cm

A pink-silver fish to 34 cm (13 in) with yellow stripes along the flank and the upper lobe of the tail drawn out into a long filament - the thread that names the family. It lives over sand and mud away from the reef, which is why divers rarely see it and trawlers constantly do.

It hunts the bottom in daylight, taking small crustaceans, worms and fish off the sediment, and gathers in loose aggregations over feeding ground rather than schooling tightly.

This is one of the most heavily landed fish in the Indian Ocean. Threadfin breams are the backbone of the region's demersal trawl fishery and a large share of the world's surimi, and stocks in several areas show the classic signs of overfishing: fish maturing smaller and younger than they did a few decades ago, which is an evolutionary response to nets that take the big ones.

Spawning runs for much of the year in warm water, with peaks that vary by region, and the larvae are planktonic - the reason a heavily fished stock can still rebound quickly when pressure eases.

## Also known as

- **English:** Japanese threadfin bream, Japanese threadfin-bream
- **Japanese:** ニホンイトヨリ, Nihon-itoyori

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cantharus filamentosus* Rüppell, 1829
- *Coryphaena lutea* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Dentex blochii* Bleeker, 1851
- *Dentex striatus* Valenciennes, 1830
- *Dentex tambulus* Valenciennes, 1830
- *Heterognathodon flaviventris* Steindachner, 1866
- *Nemipterus japonica* (Bloch, 1791)
- *Nemipterus japonicas* (Bloch, 1791)
- *Nemipterus luteus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Sparus japonicus* Bloch, 1791
- *Synagris flavolinea* Fowler, 1931
- *Synagris grammicus* Day, 1865
- *Synagris japonicus* (Bloch, 1791)

## Range

Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/threadfin-breams/japanese-threadfin-bream)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*