Flagtail Blanquillo

Interesting Info

• The Flagtail Blanquillo (Malacanthus brevirostris) occurs in Australia on coral and rubble reefs from Queensland (including Great Barrier Reef waters) south into northern New South Wales, and it is also recorded from north-western Western Australia (including the Dampier Archipelago).
• It is also known from Lord Howe Island, which is near the cooler southern edge of its Indo-Pacific range.
• Globally, it is widespread across the Indo-Pacific, extending from the Red Sea and East Africa across to the central Pacific, with records reaching as far as Panama and Colombia in the eastern Pacific.
• This species is built like a slim torpedo, with a pale grey body, a yellowish wash on the head, and faint chevron-like markings along the back.
• A key ID feature is the tail pattern: two dark stripes on the upper and lower tail lobes that angle inward, like two pencils drawing a “V”.
• It likes open sand, rubble, and low reef edges where it can dig a burrow, and it often hovers just above the bottom like it’s “parked” in mid-water.
• When spooked, it usually dives head-first into its burrow so fast it can look like it vanished.
• They are often seen in pairs, calmly hovering together above the seafloor.
• Its diet includes small fishes and bottom-living animals such as small crustaceans and other bite-sized reef-floor prey.
• Because it lives around burrows, it is one of those fish that rewards patient watching—if you stop and wait, it often reappears and resumes hovering.
• Its long, flexible body lets it “hover” near reef edges, even when waves and currents are pushing past.
• It is sometimes taken by fishing methods such as hook-and-line, traps, or spearfishing in parts of its range, but it is not a major target species in Australia.
• The name “brevirostris” means “short snout,” a nod to its shorter-looking face compared with close relatives.