Sweetlips and Red Emperors Whitsundays
Sweetlips
Look for the beautiful Harlequin Sweetlips in caves, cracks and swim-throughs or under big plate coral. This is a shy fish named after his most obvious feature. If you are lucky, you might find the famous disco dancer! These are the juvenile sweetlips, usually spotted inside a patch of staghorn coral or in any other good hiding place. They are very colourful and they never stop moving, as they flap quickly in a way that mimics a crazy interpretive dance and gives them their name.
Red Emperors
Emperors are usually found over sandy areas adjacent to reefs where they forage for crabs, sand dollars, fish and other bottom-dwelling organisms. The Red Emperor is one of the oldest fish in the reef, living up to 50 years old. Juveniles live in shallow water seagrass beds and mangroves, moving offshore as they grow. Sex changes from female to male occur as the emperor grows.
The red emperor is a very handsome fish, glowing salmon pink to bright red, its pink fins tipped in bright crimson, and three distinctive darker red bands sweeping up its face, pectoral fin to back and down again to the anal area. Easily recognized underwater, the emperor is truly the king of its domain.
