Whitepatch Razorfish (juvenile)

Iniistius aneitensis is a species of marine ray-finned fish from the family Labridae, the wrasses, which has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution.

Description

It has highly compressed body and a steep forehead with a firm knife-like anterior edge - enabling it to easily dive into the sand when threatened. It has large white patch on the side. Males have a faint yellow patch in front of the white patch, and the patch is darker in females. Juveniles have three dark bands on the body that reduce in size with growth becoming one to three dark spots along the back.

Distribution

Indo-Pacific: Chagos Islands to the Hawaiian Islands, north to the Ryukyus; Marianas and Marshalls in Micronesia.

Habitat

Inhabits open, clean, sandy areas of reef lagoons and seaward slopes at depths of 6-91 m. When threatened during the day, they dive into the sand, and also sleep there at night to avoid predators. Razorfish live in a harem defended by a single large male.