Goatfish

Goatfish are reef fish known for the pair of feelers under their chin, which they use to hunt in the sand. In this app the group includes the yellowfin goatfish, the yellowstripe goatfish, and the manybar goatfish.

The chin barbels are the mark that settles it: no other common reef fish probes the sand with a goatee like this. To tell members apart underwater, look at colour pattern and stripes, since body shape is similar across the group.

Goatfish have a deep, elongated body with a forked tail and two separate dorsal fins on the back. Their most obvious feature is a pair of chin barbels, like a goatee, which they use to feel for food. Many species are brightly coloured, and the largest can reach 60 cm, though most stay under half that size.

Goatfish live worldwide in tropical, subtropical, and cooler waters. Tropical species live around coral reefs, usually near the bottom, though some can be found much deeper and a few enter estuaries and rivers.

Goatfish feed by probing the sand and reef with their barbels, and other fish sometimes follow them to snap up any prey they miss. During the day, many goatfish rest in large, inactive schools that can include other fish species. Most goatfish can also change colour quickly depending on what they are doing.

Goatfish feed on worms, crustaceans, molluscs, and other small invertebrates that they find hidden in the sand or reef.

Goatfish release many eggs into open water, where they float and drift with the current until they hatch. The young drift at sea for several weeks before settling and taking on the adult bottom-feeding lifestyle.

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  Freckled goatfish

  Upeneus tragula

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  Manybar goatfish

  Parupeneus multifasciatus

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  Red Sea Goatfish

  Parupeneus forsskali

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  Spotted Goatfish

  Pseudupeneus maculatus

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  Yellow goatfish

  Mulloidichthys martinicus

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  Yellowfin Goatfish

  Mulloidichthys vanicolensis