Manybar goatfish

The manybar goatfish is a common reef fish of the eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Males reach 35 cm, most fish are around 20 cm, and the heaviest recorded weighed 453 g. It feeds during the day, mainly on small crabs and shrimps, over sand and rubble bottoms.

Also known as: manybar goatfish, multibar goatfish, multibarred goatfish, common goatfish, manybar goatfish, multibarred goatfish, goatfish, multibar goatfish, five-barred goatfish, doublebar goatfish, manybar goatfish, five-barred goatfish

Colour on this fish varies so much between individuals that it is not a reliable guide. Whatever the background shade, look for two dark bars that stay constant: one broad bar crossing the tail base, and a second beneath the front of the second dorsal fin, with a paler patch of body between them.

Like all goatfish, it has a pair of long barbels, whisker-like feelers under the chin, used to probe the sand for food. Body colour is highly changeable - fish can be red with black spots, plain light red, black with a yellow patch near the tail, or purple-red mottled with yellow and black - and the scale edges are often yellow or blue.

This goatfish lives from Christmas Island to the Hawaiian Islands, and from southern Japan south to Lord Howe Island. It stays close to the bottom over sand patches, rubble, limestone, and coral, on reef flats, in shallow lagoons, and on the outer reef, from 3 to 161 m. It is usually seen alone or in small numbers, though it sometimes forms schools.

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  Freckled goatfish

  Upeneus tragula

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  Goatfish

  goatfish

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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