---
title: Goldenstriped Soapfish (Grammistes sexlineatus)
scientific_name: Grammistes sexlineatus
common_name: Goldenstriped Soapfish
taxon: Soapfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-07-02T08:49:25.172Z
updated: 2026-08-17T18:50:48.948Z
tags: Goldenstriped Soapfish, Grammistes sexlineatus, Soapfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/soapfishes/goldenstriped-soapfish
---

# Goldenstriped Soapfish (*Grammistes sexlineatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Soapfishes (*Grammistini*)
- **Size:** 30 cm
- **Depth:** 1-40 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Rocky and coral reef, in crevices and caves by day
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- dark brown body with up to six white to yellow horizontal lines
- juveniles spotted rather than lined; lines appear as the fish grows
- the oldest fish break the lines back up into dashes and dots
- solitary, wedged into a crevice by day
- up to 30 cm

The name is not a metaphor. Handle one and the skin releases a mucus that foams in water like lather, and the substance in it, grammistin, is a bitter toxin that a predator spits out immediately.

What that means in the open sea is a fish nothing wants to eat. What it means in a confined volume is a disaster: a stressed soapfish in a bucket or a small tank releases enough grammistin to kill every other fish in the water, itself included. Aquarium keepers know the species for exactly this, and fishermen who land one usually throw it back, since the flesh tastes of the same bitterness.

The lines are a clock. A juvenile is dark with white spots. At around two centimeters the spots begin joining into lines, at five centimeters there are three, and by eight centimeters the full six that the name refers to. In an old fish nearing thirty centimeters they break down again into dashes and dots, so a soapfish tells you its rough age from across the water.

It is solitary and nocturnal, wedged into a crevice by day and out over the reef after dark for fish and crustaceans, and it is common on this coast without being often noticed.

## Also known as

- **English:** goldenstriped soapfish, Black and white striped soapfish, White-lined rock cod
- **Hebrew:** בוריתן קווקווי
- **French:** Feuille de canne à sucre, Mérou à rayures d'or, Poisson-savon à six lignes
- **German:** Sechsstreifen-Seifenbarsch
- **Spanish:** pez jabón de seis líneas
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-sabão-de-linhas-douradas
- **Dutch:** Zwart-witgestreepte Zeepvis
- **Czech:** kanic zlatopruhý
- **Japanese:** ヌノサラシ, Nunosarashi
- **Chinese:** 六带线纹鱼, 六帶線紋魚, 六線黑鱸
- **Russian:** Шестиполосый граммистес
- **CA:** Peix sabó ràdio
- **DA:** Gulstribet sæbefisk
- **TH:** ปลากะรังหกเส้น

## Scientific synonyms

- *Grammistes orientalis* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Perca sexlineata* Thunberg, 1792
- *Sciaena vittata* Lacepède, 1802
- *Scianea vittata* Lacepède, 1802

## Range

Comoros, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/soapfishes/goldenstriped-soapfish)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*