A small pale hamlet with a black saddle at the tail base. The hamlets are a group of nearly identical fish separated almost entirely on colour pattern.
To about 13 cm. Whitish to pale yellow, darker on the back, with one large black saddle on the upper tail base that runs below the lateral line. Bright yellow pelvic fins, a blue ring round the eye, thin blue bars on the head. No body bars at all.
That is the separator from the barred hamlet, which is barred. Nothing else is needed.
Three to sixty metres on reef rock and coral, most often shallower than thirty-five. Absent from the Gulf of Mexico. Like all hamlets it is a simultaneous hermaphrodite and pair-spawns at dusk, alternating roles. It holds position for a diver rather than moving off.
There is a long-standing claim that this fish is an aggressive mimic of the foureye butterflyfish. That has been re-tested and challenged, and an alternative explanation involving shared shelter has been proposed, so it is worth knowing as a disputed idea rather than a fact.
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.
