A tall-bodied wrasse with a long pig-like snout it uses to root shellfish out of sand, and three long trailing dorsal spines on large males.
To about 90 cm and 11 kg, though most are nearer 35 cm, and it lives to about 23 years. Deep-bodied with a straight steep forehead and a long pig-like snout, and the first three dorsal spines drawn out into long filaments. Initial-phase fish are mottled grey, red-brown and tan with a darker forehead and a black blotch at the lower rear corner of the dorsal fin. Terminal males are whitish with black on the forehead and nape. The colour changes fast.
Nothing else in the Caribbean is confusable. The head profile and the dorsal filaments are unique among the wrasses here.
It works sandy margins, gorgonian beds and seagrass, rooting in the sand for molluscs, crabs and urchins. All fish begin as females.
Three to thirty metres. Listed as Vulnerable. Florida regulates it closely: in Atlantic state waters including the Keys south of Cape Sable the minimum is 16 inches fork length, one per person, open 1 May to 31 October; in Gulf state waters it is 14 inches, five per person, year round. Ciguatera has been reported from 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.