painted sweetlips

The painted sweetlips has fleshy lips which increase in size as the fish matures. There are 6 pores on the chin but the median pit is absent.{{cite book | editor1 = Carpenter, K.E. | editor-first2 = Volker H. | editor-last2 = Neim | name-list-style = amp | year = 2001 | title = The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific Volume 5: Bony fishes part 3 (Menidae to Pomacentridae) | series = FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes | publisher = FAO Rome | author = R.J. MacKay | chapter = Haemulidae | page = 2983 | url = http://www.fao.org/3/y0770e/y0770e21.pdf}} The dorsal fin contains 9–10 spines and 22–25 soft rays while the anal fin contains 3 spines and 7 soft rays. The adults are predominantly blue-grey in colour marked with bright yellow to golden orange spots these frequently form a pattern of lines on the head. The inside of the mouth is vivid orange to red. The dorsal fins have black margins, the anal and pelvic fins have black tips. The juveniles have clear alternating black and white stripes. Their underparts are silvery yellow and they have yellow dorsal and caudal fins yellow marked with black blotches and broken stripes. The stripes grow as the fish grows and begin to split into small circular spots then they fade on body although sometimes they are retained on the caudal fin. This species attains a maximum total length of {{cvt|100|cm}}, although {{cvt|55|cm}} is a more common length, and the maximum published weight is {{cvt|6.3|kg}}.

File:Diagramma picta.png

The painted sweetlips has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution. Its range extends from the eastern coast of Africa from the Red Sea to KwaZulu-Natal eastwards as far as Fiji and north to Japan. It is not found in Australia and is mostly absent from the southern coast of New Guinea.

The painted sweetlips is found solitarily or in groups, frequently in turbid water. Its habitat can encompass open muddy, sandy or silty substrates in protected bays or estuaries, around rock outcrops, shipwrecks and rubble. It can also occur in shallow coastal waters and on coral reefs. The juveniles prefer weedy habitats. They feed on benthic invertebrates and smaller fishes. The males and females form distinct pairs when spawning. It is found as deep as {{cvt|80|m}} and is most common over silty substrates.{{cite web | url = http://maldivesfishes.blogspot.com/2009/07/diagramma-pictum-thunberg-1792.html | title = Diagramma pictus Thunberg 1792 | access-date = 14 April 2021 | publisher = Maldives Fishes}}

As other fish, the painted sweetlips is the host of many parasites. These include the lepocreadiid digenean Holorchis castex and the monorchiid digenean Lasiotocus plectorhynchi in the intestine{{cite journal | author1 = Bray, R. A. | author2 = Justine, J.-L. | name-list-style = amp | year = 2007 | title = Holorchis castex n. sp. (Digenea: Lepocreadiidae) from the painted sweet-lips Diagramma pictum (Thunberg, 1792) (Perciformes: Haemulidae) from New Caledonia | journal = Zootaxa | volume = 1426 | pages =51–56| doi = 10.11646/zootaxa.1426.1.3 }} and the cystidicolid nematode Metabronemoides mirabilis in the stomach.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.parint.2010.01.005| pmid = 20129064| title = Two new genera and species of cystidicolids (Nematoda, Cystidicolidae) from marine fishes off New Caledonia| journal = Parasitology International| volume = 59| issue = 2| pages = 198–205| year = 2010| last1 = Moravec | first1 = F. E. | last2 = Justine | first2 = J. L. }}

The painted sweetlips was first formally described as Perca picta in 1792 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg with the type locality given as Japan.{{Cof genus | genus = Diagramma | access-date = 14 April 2021}} When Lorenz Oken described the genus Diagramma he used Bloch's Anthias diagramma as its type species, this was shown to be a synonym of Thunberg's Perca picta, so Diagramma pictum is the type species of the genus Diagramma.{{Cof family | family = Haemulidae | access-date = 14 April 2021}} The Australian species Diagramma labiosum has been considered a subspecies of this species, D. p. labiosum,, by some authorities.{{cite web | url = https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/450 | author = Bray, D.J. | year = 2017 | title = Diagramma pictum labiosum | work = Fishes of Australia | access-date = 14 April 2021 | publisher = Museums Victoria}} The specific name pictum means "painted" and is a reference to the bold black and white striped pattern of the juveniles.{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/lutjaniformes/ | title = Order LUTJANIFORMES: Families HAEMULIDAE and LUTJANIDAE | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor-first1= Christopher | editor-last1= Scharpf | editor-first2 = Kenneth J. | editor-last2 = Lazara | date = 5 January 2021 | access-date = 14 April 2021 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}

File:Cooked fillets of painted sweetlips fish on a plate.JPG

The painted sweetlips is caught using handlines and by spear fishing. It is a common species that is typically marketed fresh, although a small quantity is preserved by salting. The toxin ciguatoxin has been detected in this species, this toxin is the cause of ciguatera poisoning in humans.

{{Reflist}}

• http://australianmuseum.net.au/Painted-Sweetlips-Diagramma-pictum-Thunberg-1792/
• {{sealifephotos|218536}}

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Painted sweetlips

Category:Fish of the Indian Ocean

Category:Fish of the Pacific Ocean

Category:Fish described in 1792

Category:Taxa named by Carl Peter Thunberg