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Painted sweetlips
Diagramma pictum
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Painted sweetlips
- Scientific
- Diagramma pictum
- Dhivehi
- Kilanbu guruva
- Group
- Reef fish
- Maximum size
- Up to about 1 m (fork length); commonly 55 cm; max. published weight 6.3 kg (FishBase); MRS 1997 gives max. 90 cm
- Depth and habitat
- Coral reefs and reef-associated habitats, recorded from 1 to 170 m (usually 1 to 50 m)
- IUCN status
- NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)
Description
A large sweetlips; adults are light grey with scattered dark blotches and a white belly, while juveniles are striped black and white with yellow on the head and belly, the stripes breaking into spots and then fading as they grow. It favours silty, sandy and muddy areas around reefs and feeds on bottom invertebrates and small fish.
In the Maldives
Dhivehi name kilanbu guruva (MRS 1997). MRS notes it can be told from other sweetlips by its short first dorsal spines, the second and third being abruptly the longest.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Diagramma-pictum.html
- fao.org /4/AD471E/AD471E00.htm
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Diagramma_pictum_JNC1848.JPG
Dhivehi name source: M.R.S. (1997) Fishes of the Maldives (FAO/BOBP MAG/21) gives 'Kilanbu guruva' (Latin form).