Yellowfin Goatfish

The yellowfin goatfish is a goatfish of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, growing to about 38 cm with a common size around 25 cm. Like other goatfish it carries a pair of feelers, called barbels, under the chin, which it uses to search loose sand for food. It has a strong daily rhythm: by day it hangs almost motionless in large groups over the reef, and at night the group breaks up and the fish spread out over sand flats to hunt small worms and crustaceans.

Also known as: yellow-stripe goatfish, banded goatfish, gold-striped goat-fish, gold-striped goatfish, goldstripe goatfish, yellowstripe goatfish, flame goatfish

Look for a clean yellow stripe running the length of a pale, silvery-white side, with yellow fins and a red-orange back. The area under the middle of the first back fin is plain, with no dark blotch, which separates it from goatfish that carry one there. The stripe and the missing blotch are both readable at distance.

The back is red-orange while the sides and belly are whitish, and a yellow band runs lengthwise along each side from the head to the tail. The fins are yellow. There is no dark blotch beneath the middle of the first back fin.

It is widespread across the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea east to the central Pacific. It is a reef-associated fish and is found on sandy bottoms of reef flats, in lagoons, and on coastal and seaward reefs, from about 1 m down to 113 m. During the day, look for stationary groups sitting in the lee of coral heads or along a reef edge rather than for single fish.

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  Freckled goatfish

  Upeneus tragula

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  Goatfish

  goatfish

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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