The juvenile is a dead leaf. It is reddish brown with dark blotches, it lies over on its side, and it drifts at the surface with the current in mangroves and sheltered bays - not swimming so much as being carried. Predators pass it. Only when the fish grows past roughly 10 cm does it start behaving like a fish at all.
The adult is nothing like it: a silver disc as tall as it is long, up to 60 cm across, with a dark bar through the eye and a second behind the head, black pelvic fins, and an unhurried curiosity that brings it in to inspect divers instead of away from them. Older fish develop a bony swelling between the eyes and a hollow in the snout profile.
They live over sand near sheltered reefs, in lagoons and around wrecks, alone or in small groups, feeding on algae, invertebrates and small fish. In some places they form large schools.
The genus name is the Greek platys, flat, which is the whole animal in one word.
The genus. Platax Cuvier 1816 - platys (flat). ETYFish
The species. Platax orbicularis (Forsskål 1775) - circular or disc-shaped. ETYFish
- near-circular silver disc, as tall as it is long
- dark bar through the eye and a second behind the head
- black pelvic fins
- juveniles reddish brown and leaf-like, drifting on their side
- up to 60 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known major threats for Platax orbicularis in the Persian Gulf.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
