SPOTTED ROSE SNAPPER
Lutjanus guttatus
English: Spotted Rose Snapper
Spanish: Pargo Chibato, Pargo Flamenco
The Spotted Rose Snapper is distinguished by a fairly large, irregularly-shaped black blotch on its side, just below the soft dorsal fin, that is sometimes obscure in larger fish.
It varies in color from pink to a yellowish-pink with a silver sheen, with oblique golden-green or brownish stripes that run parallel below the lateral line and are oblique above.
The Spotted Rose Snapper is found in all Mexican coastal fishing waters on the Pacific coast south to Guatemala, with the exception of the Pacific Side of the Baja California peninsula and the oceanic islands.
It grows to about two-and-a-half feet in length but is more common in lengths of 15 to 18 inches, and it is found in the first 250 feet of the water column, over sandy bottoms and not around rocky reefs.