---
title: Sicklefin Lemon Shark (Negaprion acutidens)
scientific_name: Negaprion acutidens
common_name: Sicklefin Lemon Shark
taxon: Requiem shark
conservation_status: EN - Endangered
published: 2024-11-03T22:40:54.884Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:51.034Z
tags: Sicklefin Lemon Shark, Negaprion acutidens, Requiem shark, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/sicklefin-lemon-shark
---

# Sicklefin Lemon Shark (*Negaprion acutidens*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Requiem shark (*Carcharhinidae*)
- **Size:** 3.8 m
- **Depth:** 3-92 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Shallow lagoons, sandy reef flats and mangrove edges
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** EN - Endangered

## How to recognise it

- two dorsal fins of almost equal size
- broad blunt head, yellow-brown cast to the body
- distinctly sickle-shaped fins
- slow-moving, in shallow lagoons and over sand

A broad-headed, blunt shark to 3.8 m (12 ft), yellow-brown above and pale below, with two dorsal fins of nearly equal size - a proportion no other large shark here shares - and distinctly sickle-shaped fins. The yellow cast is camouflage over sand, and against a bright lagoon floor an animal this size can be genuinely hard to pick out.

It is slow and it stays put. Individuals hold small ranges around a particular reef, lagoon or mangrove edge for years and move little between them, hunting bony fish along the bottom at an unhurried pace. That sedentary habit makes for easy watching and terrible conservation arithmetic: a local population fished out does not come back, because nothing wanders in to replace it. The species is Endangered, and has gone locally extinct across parts of its range.

Breeding is biennial, with up to thirteen pups born in mangrove and shallow reef nurseries after ten to eleven months. Pups stay in the shallows for years.

It is unaggressive by disposition and dangerous when pushed. Bites are almost always defensive and follow harassment or spearfishing, and this is a large shark that will hold its ground rather than leave.

## Also known as

- **English:** sicklefin lemon shark, Sharptooth Lemon Shark, Lemon Shark
- **Arabic:** قرش غرين مِنْجَل, Gursh
- **French:** Requin limon faucille, Requin citron
- **Italian:** Squalo limone indo-pacifico
- **German:** Indopazifischer Zitronenhai, Sichelflossen-Zitronenhai
- **Spanish:** Tiburón limón del Indo-pacífico, Tiburón Segador
- **Portuguese:** Tubarão-de-atol
- **Dutch:** Sikkelvincitroenhaai
- **Czech:** žralok srpoploutvý
- **Japanese:** レモンザメ, Remonzame
- **Chinese:** 尖齒檸檬鯊, 檸檬鯊, 犁鰭檸檬鮫
- **Russian:** Мадагаскарская острозубая акула
- **DA:** Seglfinnet citronhaj
- **TAH:** ma'o 'arava
- **TH:** ปลาฉลามครีบโค้ง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Apeionodon acutidens* (Rüppell, 1837)
- *Aprionodon acutidens* (Rüppell, 1837)
- *Aprionodon acutidens queenslandicus* Whitley, 1939
- *Carcharias acutidens* Rüppell, 1837
- *Carcharias forskalii* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Carcharias munzingeri* Kossmann & Räuber, 1877
- *Eulamia odontaspis* Fowler, 1908
- *Hemigaleops fosteri* Schultz & Welander, 1953
- *Mystidens innominatus* Whitley, 1944
- *Negaprion odontaspis* (Fowler, 1908)
- *Negaprion queenslandicus* (Whitley, 1939)
- *Odontaspis madagascariensis* Fourmanoir, 1961

## Range

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

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/sicklefin-lemon-shark)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*