You can identify various species of snapper by paying attention to the physical form, to the colors of the fins and to their patterns. Young ones change a bit between children and adults. The most reliable way to tell the species is to look at the mouth.
For instance, the mangrove snapper has slim lips, a long snout and little teeth. Instead, the cubera snapper has short snout, thick lips and big teeth. Even large snapper are usually cubera.
How to Identify Snappers
Some believe that dog snapper and yellow snapper are same species. The dog snapper has a long dorsal fin that almost reaches the tail. Its body is bronze brown with tiny bright strokes.
Below on the sides often shows copper color or light red, and under the eye can have a horizontal blue line. The name dog snapper comes from its big teeth, like those of a dog.
Other species show by means of very distinctive looks. You easily identify the lane snapper because of yellow stripes and a unique black mark. They also call spot snapper.
The yellowtail snapper you recognize because of bright yellow marks, especially a yellow line from the eye until the tail. The lane snapper live in shallow seas, between coral reefs and meadows. They have reddish-pink fins, a visible jaw and pointed head.
The red snapper often show deep body shape. It has red eyes, a non-forked tail and pointed anal fin. Its scales redden with a bit of white shading below.
Also it has villiform teeth, close together with little dog-teeth. Smaller red snapper sometimes bear black spots on the sides. They classically have almond shape, dark pink-red that fades to a pale underbelly.
The northern red snapper is a marine ray-finned fish from the family Lutjanidae. This species lives naturally in the Mexican Gulf, the Caribbean Sea and the west Atlantic. It favors reef environments.
The two-spot red snapper commonly present in protected places, as the slopes of the Great Barrier Reef. The blackspot snapper is very common in the Red Sea. The mangrove snapper you also know as gray snapper, mango or mangy.
The Australasian snapper are actually porgy.