Fiveband Flagtail

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.