Adults come to divers; juveniles hide in weed and wreckage and look nothing alike.
Adults reach about 60 cm, silver-grey with two dark bars — one through the eye, one behind the pectoral fin — a black blotch below the pectoral fin and above the anal fin, and rounded fins. Juveniles have enormously extended dorsal and anal fins, are brown-yellow, and hang at odd angles among floating weed, jetty pilings and wreck structure. The extended fins shorten progressively with growth.
Adults form loose groups around wrecks and slope edges and are among the most inquisitive large fish here; they will follow a diver for an entire dive and are easier to photograph too close than at distance. Juveniles are solitary and skittish. Related species Platax orbicularis and P. boersii occur alongside; the black blotch above the anal fin is the practical mark for teira. Recorded from about 3 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.
