A thin-bodied sand wrasse that dives head first into the sand when approached and reappears several metres away.
To about 17 cm. Compressed with a steep blade-like head profile. Each scale carries a vertically elongated blue spot and the head has alternating pale blue and brownish-orange vertical lines. Males are green overall with a blue-edged inky black spot on the middle of the side, set in a pale pink or yellow field.
That black side spot separates it from the rosy razorfish, which instead shows an orange-red stripe running back from the eye.
Three to fifteen metres on shallow open sand in and around seagrass. When frightened it dives head-first into the sand and stays buried, which is usually the last you see of it.
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.