In order to protect and develop valuable snappers (Lutjanus spp.), genetic diversity and molecular markers of five species (Lutjanus vitta, L. fulvus, L. fulviflamma, L. sebae and L. stellatus) were detected and analysed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and simple sequence repeats (SSR) techniques. The polymorphic loci ratio (P) (86.00–92.11%), the mean intraspecies genetic distances (D) (0.1775–0.3431) and the intraspecies genetic diversity indexes (Hi) (0.1022–0.1634) were calculated using the RAPD technique. The genetic diversities of L. fulviflamma and L. vitta were richest in terms of P, and D and Hi, respectively. The results of SSR showed that low effective numbers of alleles (1.7893–3.6591), medium average heterozygosities (0.332–0.676) and medium polymorphism information contents (PIC) (0.302–0.641) occurred in five species of snappers, indicating comparatively rich genetic diversity among these fish. Nine molecular markers in the products amplified by primers OPA8 and OPP10, and six molecular markers in 11 microsatellite loci were found to be useful as specific markers to identify five species of snappers. Two neighbour-joining (NJ) dendrograms based on the results of RAPD and SSR suggested that L. stellatus and L. sebae are closely related and clustered in one branch, with L. vitta, L. fulviflamma and L. fulvus in the other.