Striped Sweetlips

Striped Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus lineatus)

Striped Sweetlips, known for its distinctive appearance, features fleshy lips that become moderately swollen with age. It has six pores on its chin but lacks a median pit. Its dorsal fin is equipped with 12-13 spines and 18-19 soft rays, while the anal fin has 3 spines and 7-8 soft rays.

The fish’s overall coloration is light grey, transitioning to white on the belly. It is marked by prominent yellow lips and a large number of broken, diagonal black stripes across the upper body. The fins are yellow, with black spots on the caudal, anal, and dorsal fins, and red spots at the bases of the pelvic fins.

Juveniles display a few horizontal to slightly angled dark brown bands. As they mature, these bands break up, and the body color shifts to a dark chocolate brown, overlaid with a network of thin white lines on the back. As the fish continues to grow, the wide brown bars on the lower flanks fragment into smaller spots that further diminish in size with age.

This species can reach a maximum total length of 72 cm (28 inches).