Chrysophrys auratus

About this species

The Australasian snapper or silver seabream is a species of porgie found in coastal waters of Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand. Its distribution areas in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are disjunct. Although it is almost universally known in Australia and New Zealand as snapper, it does not belong to the Lutjanidae snapper family. It is highly prized as an edible fish, with a sweet sea taste and a firm texture.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Australasian snapper”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 1,244 records
February: 4,417 records
March: 10,023 records
April: 825 records
May: 657 records
June: 515 records
July: 463 records
August: 367 records
September: 464 records
October: 1,738 records
November: 6,610 records
December: 3,737 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 10–50 m · Deepest record: 947.5 m

0–10 m: 2,341 records
10–20 m: 9,328 records
20–30 m: 6,147 records
30–40 m: 4,229 records
40–50 m: 1,751 records
50–60 m: 1,565 records
60–70 m: 388 records
70–80 m: 301 records
80–90 m: 197 records
90–100 m: 86 records
100–110 m: 94 records
110+ m: 271 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 15–23 °C

14–16 °C: 109 records
16–18 °C: 811 records
18–20 °C: 3 records
20–22 °C: 11 records
22–24 °C: 3 records

Photos

(c) Krystal, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) eyrezer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Shaun Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) wild_wind, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Doug Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) naturewatchwidow, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

Other scientific names: Chrysophrys aurata, Chrysophrys guttulatus, Chrysophrys unicolor, Labrus auratus, Pagrosomus auratus, Pagrosomus unicolor, Pagrus arthurius, Pagrus auratus, Pagrus chinensis, Pagrus guttulatus, Pagrus latus, Pagrus micropterus, Pagrus ruber, Pagrus unicolor, Sciaena lata, Sparosomus unicolor

Similar species

Australian Seabream
Acanthopagrus australis
Santer seabream
Cheimerius nufar
Englishman seabream
Chrysoblephus anglicus
Dageraad
Chrysoblephus cristiceps
Miss Lucy
Chrysoblephus gibbiceps
Roman seabream
Chrysoblephus laticeps

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
28,832 open-data records from 1900 to 2021.
Species data updated November 1, 2026.