A steep-headed sand wrasse that dives head first into the bottom when pressed.
A razorfish to about 25 cm, pale pink to greenish grey with fine dark scale margins and a cluster of small reddish or dark spots on the flank behind the pectoral fin, from which the name comes. The head is deep and the forehead nearly vertical, the profile that gives the group its name, and the body is strongly compressed. Juveniles are paler, carry higher dorsal rays and drift over the bottom in a way that reads as a piece of weed rather than as a fish.
It lives on open sand away from structure and feeds on small molluscs, crustaceans and worms taken from the surface and from shallow digging. When pressed it does not swim away over distance; it accelerates at the bottom and goes into the sand head first, and stays under for a minute or more before emerging some metres from where it entered. Adults will do this at a diver’s approach, so most encounters are brief.
Recorded on sand from about 5 m down through the Indo-Pacific. The genus contains several similar species on the same ground, separated on the flank markings and the head profile, and a fish photographed only as it turns to dive is usually best logged at genus level.
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.