Adults are sooty and in schools; juveniles are black-and-white and solitary.
Adults reach about 75 cm and are sooty grey-black with a paler head and dark fins. Juveniles are black and white with long trailing pelvic and dorsal fins and swim alone, often near the bottom with the fins extended. The related Macolor macularis shares the ground; its adults have a paler, more spotted head and its juveniles carry white spots rather than clean white areas.
Adults form loose stationary aggregations on the up-current side of slopes and wrecks by day and disperse at night to hunt fish and crustaceans in open water. Juveniles are solitary and skittish and are one of the more distinctive fish on a rubble slope. Recorded from about 5 to 45 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.