---
title: Fiveband Flagtail (Kuhlia mugil)
scientific_name: Kuhlia mugil
common_name: Fiveband Flagtail
taxon: Tigerperches
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2026-08-04T21:32:44.568Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:45.899Z
tags: Fiveband Flagtail, Kuhlia mugil, Tigerperches, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/tigerperches/fiveband-flagtail
---

# Fiveband Flagtail (*Kuhlia mugil*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Tigerperches (*Terapontidae*)
- **Size:** up to 32 cm
- **Depth:** 0-10 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Surge zones and rocky shorelines
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- forked tail with five bold black bands
- bright silver body, large eye
- fast-moving shoals in white water near rocks

A bright silver fish whose name sits in its tail: the deeply forked caudal fin carries five bold black bands - one along each lobe margin, one through the center of each lobe, and one across the base - a marking visible from well back even in broken water. The body is compressed and oval with a large eye, and the back is greenish silver. Length reaches about 32 cm (13 in), though most fish seen are half that.

Shoals work the surge zone along rocky shorelines, headlands and reef edges in the top few meters, holding position in white water that most reef fish avoid and darting out to take small fish, crustaceans and insects washed off the rocks. The large eye also serves at dusk, when feeding picks up. In the Red Sea the species turns up along exposed coasts and around jetties rather than on sheltered coral slopes, so divers meet it mostly on entry and exit through the surf rather than on the reef itself. Juveniles tolerate brackish water and run some distance up coastal creeks, which is unusual for a fish otherwise tied to open, wave-beaten rock.

## Also known as

- **English:** barred flagtail, Five-bar Flagtail, Fiveband Flagtail
- **French:** Doule à queue rubanée
- **Italian:** Coda a bandiera barrato
- **German:** Fünfband-Fahnenschwanz
- **Spanish:** dara bandera
- **Portuguese:** Kuhila-de-cauda-listrada
- **Czech:** praporkovec cípalovitý
- **Japanese:** ギンユゴイ, Gin-yugoi
- **Chinese:** 銀湯鯉, 銀湯鯉（鯔形湯鯉）, 鯔形湯鯉
- **Russian:** Пятиполосый флагохвост
- **AF:** Bontstertjie
- **DA:** Båndflaghale
- **KO:** 은잉어

## Scientific synonyms

- *Dules argenteus* (Bennett, 1830)
- *Dules bennetti* Bleeker, 1853
- *Dules taeniura* Cuvier, 1829
- *Dules taeniurus* Cuvier, 1829
- *Dules taeniurus malpeloensis* Fowler, 1944
- *Kuhila mugil* (Forster, 1801)
- *Kuhlia arge* Jordan & Bollman, 1890
- *Kuhlia sterneckii* Steindachner, 1898
- *Kuhlia taehimura* (Cuvier, 1829)
- *Kuhlia taeniura* (Cuvier, 1829)
- *Perca argentea* Bennett, 1830
- *Sciaena mugil* Forster, 1801

## Range

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

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/tigerperches/fiveband-flagtail)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*