Sphyraena chrysotenia has an Indo-West Pacific distribution occurring from the Red Sea and Madagascar east through the Indian Ocean to China and northern Australia. It was first recorded in the Mediterranean off Palestine in 1931, and had spread as far west as Malta by 1993 and north to the southern Adriatic Sea by 2002.[1] It has been misidentified as Sphyraena obtusata but this species has not been recorded from the Mediterraean.[5]