About Grammistes sexlineatus (Thunberg, 1792)
Grammistes sexlineatus, commonly known as the six-lined soapfish, is a medium-sized fish that can reach a maximum total length of 30 centimeters. Its body has a dark brown base color, marked with up to six horizontal white to yellow lines. The number of these lines changes as the fish matures. Juveniles smaller than approximately 17.5 millimeters have white to yellow dots instead of lines, scattered across their dark base color. After reaching this size, the dots gradually transition into full lines. When the fish grows to 5 centimeters long, it has three developed horizontal lines. It only gains its full set of six distinctive horizontal lines once it reaches 8 centimeters in length. In adult specimens that are close to the maximum recorded size, these lines often break apart into small short strokes and dots. The six-lined soapfish is widely distributed across tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. Its range extends from the eastern coast of Africa to the oceanic islands of the Pacific, including Hawaii and the Red Sea, and also stretches from southern Japan down to northern New Zealand. This species inhabits coastal rocky reefs and coral reefs, found from shallow waters down to depths between 40 and 50 meters.
