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Project Noah Nature School
Iniistus pavo
The body is white to yellowish white, with four indistinct dark wide bands and a small black spot on the top side of the top of the eighth scale of the lateral line. Juveniles are whitish with 4 diffuse light brown bars, also with diffuse thin lines radiating from the eye, and pelvic fins entirely light brown.
Tropical indo-Pacific.Usually solitary in lagoon and seaward reef areas with fine to loose, coarse sand bottoms. Juveniles sometimes in shallow estuaries. Adults rare in less than 20 m. Benthic and benthopelagic. Dive into the sand when threatened. Feed on hard-shelled invertebrates, including mollusks and crustaceans. Juveniles mimic drifting dead leaves by holding the elongate detached front part of dorsal fin forward over head.
Is a tiny little fish lurking in the sandy bottoms. Not so easy to spot, specially when a bit more grown they turn darker and then mimetize with algae. Also when they see you they flee and bury themselves in the sand real quick!
Spotted on Oct 2, 2012
Submitted on Nov 10, 2012
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