Purple over the front half and yellow behind. Juveniles clean other fish and set up at a fixed station on the reef.
To about 40 cm. The upper rear of the head, the upper third of the body and the front three-quarters of the dorsal fin are blue-grey to purple, or red in deep water, and the rest of the fish is yellow. Juveniles have the head and front half blue to dark blue-grey and the rest yellow.
The spotfin hogfish overlaps in range and, at depth, in colour. Look at the lower body: red over the belly, pelvic and anal fins on the spotfin, yellow there on this fish. Juveniles are easier — the spotfin’s is bright yellow with a large black blotch over the first four dorsal spines.
It lives in permanent harems of one male and several females and spawns at dusk. Sex change takes seven to ten days. Juveniles work as cleaners, picking parasites off larger fish, which is a reason not to handle them.
One to seventy metres on rock and coral. There is a small fishery and an aquarium trade, and ciguatera has been reported.
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.