It has the most extreme jaw in any reef fish, and it is worth waiting to see it work.
The entire front of the head shoots forward. Bones that in other fish are short and hinged are stretched into long struts here, folded away under the cheek, and when the fish strikes they swing out and the mouth becomes a tube extending up to half the length of the body. From the outside it looks as though the animal has fired a telescope at something.
What it buys is reach and suction. A shrimp sitting a hand's width inside a coral branch is safe from almost everything, because a predator has to get its head in there. This one does not: it hangs outside, aims, and the mouth arrives on its own, with the water rushing in behind it. The strike takes a fraction of a second and the prey does not get a decision.
The rest of the animal is built around the delivery: slow, deliberate, unhurried, working the coral at a pace that lets it get into position. A slingjaw that has spotted something moves like it has all afternoon, because it does.
The species. Epibulus insidiator (Pallas 1770) - ambusher or lurker. ETYFish
- long pointed snout that shoots forward into a tube when it feeds
- adults yellow, brown or dark gray with pale head and dark bars behind the eye
- moves slowly and deliberately, close to coral
- up to 54 cm
Why it's threatened
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
