Oriental Sweetlips Plectorhinchus vittatus

The Oriental Sweetlips, also called the Indian Ocean Oriental Sweetlips, is a grunt native to coral reefs of the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific.

The adult is white with horizontal black stripes and yellow fins, the dorsal, anal and tail fins having black spots. The face is yellow with black stripes. Their lips enlarge as they age. It can grow to some 70cm long. Like most grunts, they are mainly nocturnal.

The juveniles are strikingly different from the adults. They start as brown with white blobs. Those above are in transition to their adult pattern.