Design

By day, yellow goatfish will form large inactive (non-feeding) schools, often schooling with the smallmouth grunt (Haemulon chrysargyreum). The goatfish and the grunt share a similar overall body shape and color pattern. The similarities between the two species enable their mixed schooling, and enhance protection against predators for both of them. This type of protective association is often called social or protective mimicry. It enables them to avoid predators in today’s fallen world.

desertnaturalist, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Features

• The yellow goatfish has a torpedo-shaped white body with a yellow mid-body stripe.
• It has forked tail fins and widely separated dorsal fins.
• It has two long barbels below its chin, often only visible when feeding.

Fun Facts

• All goatfishes have the ability to change their coloration depending on their current activity.
• Goatfishes are pelagic spawners. They release many buoyant eggs into the water which become part of the plankton. The eggs float freely with the currents until hatching.
• The yellow goatfish is a tireless bottom feeder, using the pair of long chemosensory barbels (“whiskers”) protruding from its chin to rifle through the sediments in search of a meal.
• Yellow goatfish are usually found in schools during the day, and feeding solitarily at night. When goatfish aren’t eating, they swim in small schools above the reef.