A heavy silver-bronze fish to 87 cm (34 in), flecked with pale blue over the scales and marked with blue lines radiating from the eye. It works sand and seagrass beside the reef rather than the coral itself, usually alone and usually with its snout down.
The jaw is a mill. Behind the conical front teeth sit rows of blunt molars, and the emperor uses them on the armored animals nothing else on the flat can open: sea urchins, crabs, thick-shelled molluscs. Digging is done by blowing water at the sediment and taking what surfaces, which is why a feeding emperor leaves a trail of small craters.
It changes sex on the way up. Fish mature as females and the largest become males, so a big emperor is an old fish that spent years as something else - and the same size-selective fishing that takes the biggest fish takes the males first.
This is one of the region's most important food fishes and a favorite of shore anglers, which is why the big ones near towns are gone and why the species is a decent indicator of how hard a stretch of coast is fished.
The species. Lethrinus nebulosus (Forsskål 1775) - cloudy. ETYFish
- heavy silver-bronze fish with blue flecks scattered over the scales
- blue lines radiating from the eye across the cheek
- steep forehead and thick lips, snout often buried in sand
- length up to 87 cm
