Distribution:
All tropical and subtropical seas, with a few species occuring in freshwater and mangrove estuaries.
Habitat:
Usually occur near the bottom over a variety of substrates, from shallow water to depths as great as 550 m.
Remarks:
Snappers have moderate-to-large, terminal mouths and most species have robust canine teeth in their jaws and can have small conical teeth on the roof of the mouth. In addition the maxilla slips under the snout for most or all of its length when the mouth is closed. As active predators, they feed mainly at night on fishes, crabs, shrimps, gastropods, squids and planktonic organisms.
Snappers are important as commercial foodfishes; however, they are sometimes responsible for ciguatera, a food poisoning illness due to contamination by toxic micro-algae.
There are four subfamilies: Etelinae, Apsilinae, Paradichthyinae and Lutjaninae, which comprise 17 genera and 105 species.
References:
Allen & Robertson 1994;
Anderson, pp. 1479-1504, in: Carpenter 2002;
Helfman et al. 1997;
Nelson 2006;
Thomson et al. 2000