Scissor-tailed Fusilier Caesio caerulaurea

The Scissor-tailed Fusilier, also called the Gold-band Fusilier and, confusingly, the Blue and Gold Fusilier (since many of the fusiliers are combinations of blue and gold/yellow), has a wide native range around tropical coasts and reefs of the Indo-Pacific, from the east coast of Africa to Japan/Australia and into the western mid Pacific. Not easy to see in the above photos, there is a yellow (gold) lateral line bordered by thin pale blue.

A shoaling fish, it grows to 35cm long. Diet is zooplankton. The name "fusilier" for the genus (with Caesio meaning blue) is likely derived from the blue and gold helmets of the French fusiliers since the genus was proposed by a French naturalist and the type specimen is the Blue and Gold Fusilier, C. caerulaurea (cf. Soldier Beetles and Military Macaw, both in green and red "uniforms").