Habitat: Marine. Commonly found in mangroves, sandy beaches, around wrecks and pilings, under bridges. Depth range 3 - 35 m. Natural History Notes: Adults often encountered in small schools, swimming well above the bottom. Occasionally in huge schools. Feed on benthic organisms such as sponges, zoantharians, polychaete worms, gorgonians, crustaceans, mollusks, annelids, cnidarians and algae as well as planktonic animals such as pelagic tunicates. The small black individuals have been found inclined on the side, drifting back and forth and looking much like black gastropods, black infertile pods of the red mangrove or like dead leaves debris, all of which are found with them. When a foot-long individual shows the black phase it again lies on the side on the bottom where it appears like a piece of drifting trash. Characteristics: Deep and narrow body, separated spinous and soft dorsal fin. Strongly marked with black bars on a pale background, although they appear sometines in the black phase up to lengths of a foot or more. Juveniles : totally black except for the posterior parts of dorsal, anal and pectoral fins all of which are transparent.