Description

Dorsal spines (total): 9; Dorsal soft rays (total): 10 - 11; Anal spines: 3; Anal soft rays: 11. Lips thick with age (Ref. 1623). Several color phases with age and sex (Ref. 48636). Basic color pattern changes little with growth although the posteriormost white bands disappear on large individuals (Ref. 1602).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Eupercaria/misc

Family: Labridae

Genus: Hemigymnus

Species: Hemigymnus fasciatus (Bloch, 1792)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Found mostly on coral reefs and reef flats to at least 20 m depth. Juveniles secretive on inshore reefs. Large adults swim openly on reefs, singly or in small loose aggregations (Ref. 48636). Adults feed mainly by taking mouthfuls of sand and gravel, releasing sand from the gill opening after sorting the small animal prey and ejecting the inorganic fragments from the mouth. Gut contents may contain shrimps and 25% the crushed remains of the echinoids Echinometra and Diadema, these were large prey; remaining food material consisted of very small gastopods, bivalves, crabs, ophiuroids, foraminiferans, and unidentified eggs (Ref. 93095). Feed mainly on small crustaceans, mollusks and echinoderms (Ref. 9823). Minimum depth reported taken from Ref. 128797.

Habitat

associated