Painted Sweetlip

Plectorhinchus picus

Bislamatiklips— names this kind of animal, not this species alone

rareblackwhitegreyspottedsolitarylargereef

Habitat: Reef
Max size: 84 cm
Depth: 3-50 m
Family: Haemulidae

Plectorhinchus pica, the painted sweetlips, dotted sweetlips, magpie sweetlips or spotted sweetlips, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a sweetlips belonging to the subfamily Plectorhinchinae, one of two subfamilies in the family Haemulidae, the grunts. It is native to coral reefs of the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. It is a commercially important species and can be found in the aquarium trade.

Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Side by side, with what tells them apart.

The young look nothing alike -- the harlequin is brown with big cream blotches, the painted black above and white below -- but the adults are often confused: both are pale grey with dark spots. Harlequin Sweetlip is deeper-bodied and its spots are large, wider than the iris. Painted Sweetlip is more slender, covered in smaller spots, and has a dark brown to blackish dorsal fin with large black spots.

See the Harlequin Sweetlip →

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