Pale scales each with a dark centre, forming a grid; the juvenile looks unrelated.
Adults reach about 27 cm and are pale green-white with each scale dark-centred so the flank reads as a checkerboard, green lines radiating across the head, and a yellow blotch behind the pectoral fin. Terminal males add pink and green head markings and a yellow patch on the back. Juveniles are white with two black blotches on the dorsal fin and a black-and-white tail, and are usually recorded as something else.
It hunts small molluscs, crustaceans and worms over sand and rubble, and turns small stones and pieces of dead coral with its mouth to reach what is beneath. On muck sites it is among the species that will arrive as soon as sediment is disturbed. It buries in sand at night. Recorded from about 2 to 35 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.