A silver fish with a steep head and a very large eye, resting in a loose group beside a coral head in the middle of the day and not going anywhere. Sixty centimeters (24 in) at its largest.
The head is built around what it eats. Behind those unremarkable lips sit heavy molar-like teeth in the throat, and the fish makes its living crushing shells - snails, hermit crabs, urchins, brittle stars - which it picks off the sand at night and mills into fragments. Where they feed you can find the spat-out shell debris in small piles.
The eye follows from the same habit. Night hunting over sand, in animals that do not chase anything fast, rewards light-gathering over speed, and this is the emperor that took that furthest.
Juveniles are barred black and white and behave differently, keeping to shallow rubble on their own. Adults are common enough to be background on any dive; the reason to look twice is the yellow ring around the eye, which is the field mark that separates them from every other silver fish resting on the same patch of sand.
The genus. Monotaxis Anonymous [Bennett] 1830 - mono- (one) + taxis (series). ETYFish
The species. Monotaxis grandoculis (Forsskål 1775) - grand (large) + oculis (eye). ETYFish
- silver body, steep forehead, very large eye set high
- bright yellow around the eye and inside the pectoral fin base
- juveniles boldly barred in black and white
- small resting groups facing into current beside a coral head
- length up to 60 cm
Why it's threatened
This species is fished throughout its range, but this does not currently appear to be a major threat at the global level.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
