The vermillion snapper tends to live in more shallow water than the silk, and is often caught on headboats and charters while bottom fishing wrecks and reefs. Silk Snapper – Lutjanus vivanus Vermillion Snapper – Rhomboplites aurorubens The vermillion snapper is rather slender compared to the silk, with a smaller head and shorter snout. These yellow tinged fins may be subtle in the above picture, but are much more obvious in person. The silk snapper also has yellow tinged pectoral fins, anal fin, dorsal fin, and caudal fin, where the vermillion is red all around. Vermillion snapper have a red eye, while the silk snapper have a diagnostic yellow eye. Silk Snapper – Lutjanus vivanus – Close up of Yellow Lines Vermillion Snapper – Rhomboplites aurorubens – Close up of Yellow Lines Looking at a still picture of both fishes side by side, one obvious difference is the eye color. Upon an initial glance, the two species seem awfully similar, they are both red, both snappers, and both have faint parallel yellow lines along their sides. As adults these two species are easy to separate, as the silk snapper grows much larger, but between 10 and 20 inches these fishes are often mixed up. With that in mind, I wanted to start off by covering the differences between two common species of snapper that I saw today, the vermillion snapper ( Rhomboplites aurorubens) and the silk snapper ( Lutjanus vivanus). ![]() We plan on including both common fishes, oddballs, a little biology, and lots of pictures! Often we find fishes that are everyday sights to us, may be very interesting to people who don’t have the luxury of seeing them as often. Today we are starting a series of posts that will showcase some of the fishes we encounter on a weekly basis. We are aware and are working diligently to rebuild them! Top: Vermillion Snapper – Rhomboplites aurorubens Some of the images used in our old posts such as this one were broken during our move at the end of 2019.
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