Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Coastal fishes of the tropical Indo-West Pacific and West Africa, often
found over sandy bottoms and including seagrass beds, mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and rocky reefs,
to depths of 100 m. They usually occur solitary or in small groups and form large aggregations while
spawning. The diet consists of echinoderms, crustaceans, molluscs, fishes, and polychaetes. Moderate to
significantly important in fisheries; in certain countries, members of this genus are the most important catch
by weight. Caught primarily by handline, traps, and trawls. For 1995, the FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics
reports a total catch of 31 518 t of Lethrinidae from the Western Central Pacific.