Blackeye Thicklip wrasse (juvenile)

This wrasse can grow up to 50 cm long. The juvenile has a greenish yellow background color with yellow vertical lines (this pattern is not visible yet in the very young juvenile which is mostly black in this part of the body), a broad white diagonal band just behind the operculum, a yellow to orange caudal fin and a greenish gray front. Mature specimens develop a much more colorful pattern although the division between a clearer front and darker middle to back body remains. Seen in the coral reef next to Lankayan's shoreline (Sabah).