Biology

A diurnal predator that feeds on small benthic fishes and occasionally on crustaceans. Often it uses browsing herbivorous fishes as a moving blind in order to feed on the cryptic fauna disturbed by these browsers; it will also follow foraging moray eels to catch the fishes frightened from their hiding places. Small juveniles have been seen hiding among the long spines of the dark-colored sea urchin, Centrostephanus coronatus.