Freckled goatfish
Upeneus tragula
Red Sea Goatfish
Parupeneus forsskali
About
The Red Sea goatfish is a slender reef fish that sweeps the sand with a pair of chin barbels, feeling out hidden prey. Small groups can often be seen working a patch of sand together, moving slowly as they search.
- Length
- 25 cm · max 28 cm
- Depth
- up to 45 m
How to tell it apart
Several goatfish share the barbel-equipped snout and a stripe through the eye. The irregular black spot sitting at the base of this species' yellow tail is the clearest way to tell it apart from goatfish with a plain stripe and no tail spot.
Appearance
This fish has an elongated body and a pointed snout, with the twin chin barbels typical of goatfish. It is white below a broad black or dark brown stripe that runs from the upper lip through the eye and along the body, ending near an irregular black spot at the base of the yellow tail. Above the stripe, the body is greyish green. The tail fin is yellow, and the second dorsal and anal fins carry narrow blue and yellow stripes. It grows up to 28 cm, usually around 25 cm.
Habitat
It lives over shallow, sandy bottoms near coral reefs, from just below the surface down to 45 m. It is native to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, where it is the most common goatfish in shallow water, and has more recently been recorded in the Mediterranean Sea.
Did you know?
This goatfish is native to the Red Sea, but it was first confirmed in the Mediterranean Sea in 2012, one of a number of Red Sea species now spreading into Mediterranean waters.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
