Yellow above with five dark bars, the eastern Pacific sergeant major, in loose shoals over any hard bottom.
To about 23 cm. Whitish or pale silvery-green with five black bars on the side and usually a bright yellow back.
The Pacific night sergeant shares the Galapagos, Cocos and Malpelo and the polarity is reversed: it is a grey fish with a golden-brown head and four or five narrow whitish bars, where this is a pale fish with dark bars.
Nought to fifteen metres on rocky shore. It takes zooplankton, pelagic fish eggs and larvae, benthic microalgae and worms. Male egg-guarding is normal in the genus but has not been recorded for this species specifically.
It is the eastern Pacific counterpart of the Atlantic sergeant major, and the two are not found together.
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.