Spangled Emperor

• It is a protogynous hermaphrodite: most individuals are born female and the largest turn into males, so that selective fishing for the big fish leaves the population without males.
• Its rear teeth are flattened molars able to crush thick shells and urchin tests.
• It is a protogynous hermaphrodite: most start out as females and some individuals change to male on reaching a certain size.
• Its rear molar-like teeth are built for crushing: it eats mainly molluscs, sea urchins, crustaceans and worms it digs out of the bottom.
• Juveniles use the seagrass meadows and mangroves as a nursery before moving to the reef, which makes it dependent on those coastal habitats.
• It is an important fishery resource in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, and its hermaphroditism makes it vulnerable to the selective fishing of large individuals, which are the males.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Reefs, seagrass meadows and sandy bottoms of the Indo-Pacific, from 0 to 75 m

Sexual maturity

6.3 years

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (en): Lethrinus nebulosus