Painted Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus picus)

This fish is found in lagoons and seaward reefs of the Indo-Pacific. Adults tend to be solitary and hang out under ledges or caves to a depth of 150 feet, while juveniles prefer to live in shallow lagoons. Both like to feed on crustaceans, mollusks and smaller fishes. When fully grown, they will reach nearly 3 feet in length.

Most types of Sweetlips have small mouths with large fleshy lips and they usually undergo dramatic color changes as they grow. As you can see in the above two photos, juveniles (right) are black with a few white splotches and adults (left) are more white with small dark spots. As a juvenile matures it will change from a bold black and white pattern to a whitish grey with numerous small black spots over most of its upper body and fins.

We currently have one of these in our Mermaid Aquarium, who is still in its juvenile color phase.