The goatfish that hunts fish rather than sand, and does it in cooperating groups.
To about 50 cm, with a yellow saddle on the caudal peduncle and two colour forms that occur side by side: a blue-grey form with fine blue lines on the head, and an entirely bright yellow form. Both have the long chin barbels of the family. The yellow form is a minority in most populations and is not a separate species.
Unlike the sand-probing goatfish it hunts small fish, using the barbels to feel into coral crevices and flush them out, and it does so in groups of three to eight that spread across a coral head and cut off escape routes — one of the clearer examples of cooperative hunting available to a diver on these reefs. Other species, including trevallies and wrasses, join the group opportunistically. Recorded from about 2 to 45 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.