Black and white bars with a red-orange chest; follows other feeders to take what they turn up.
To about 40 cm, with a white to grey body crossed by six or seven broad dark bars, an orange-red chest and throat, and a green-marked head. Adults develop a slightly produced snout and a rounded tail with extended lobes. Juveniles are mottled brown and white and are found in shallow rubble.
It takes hard-shelled prey — molluscs, crabs, urchins — and habitually follows goatfish, octopus and other diggers, waiting a body length behind for something to escape. It will follow a diver on a muck site for the same reason. It is one of the more approachable of the larger wrasses and holds still long enough to photograph while it watches whatever it is following. Recorded from about 2 to 40 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.