🐠 Six Lined Soapfish (Grammistes sexlineatus)
Marine Not-Reef-Safe Toxic Nocturnal Predator • Dark Brown Body With Up to Six White-to-Yellow Horizontal Lines • Genuinely Capable of Poisoning an Entire Tank — Please Read Before Buying • Expert-Only Species
 
⚠️ Important Information — Please Read First
We want to be genuinely direct on this one, because we believe honesty matters more than a sale. This species is genuinely one of the most important safety disclosures in the entire aquarium trade: when stressed or injured, it can release a skin toxin called grammistin, and this toxin is genuinely capable of killing every fish in the aquarium, including the soapfish itself. Please never add the shipping water to your tank, and please only consider this species in a genuinely large, dedicated setup where the risk to other fish is minimised. Multiple expert sources genuinely recommend a very large tank, ranging from 180 gallons up to 1500 litres or more.
 
📋 The Six Lined Soapfish, also known as the Goldenstriped Soapfish or Skunkfish, has a genuinely distinctive dark brown body marked with up to six white-to-yellow horizontal lines, with the number of visible lines genuinely depending on the fish's size and maturity — juveniles show spots that gradually form into lines as they grow.
Native to a genuinely vast range across the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to the Pacific islands and the Red Sea, north to southern Japan and south to New Zealand, this species inhabits coastal rocky and coral reefs to depths of 40-50 metres.
This is a genuinely solitary, nocturnal species that spends the majority of its time hidden in ledges and caves during the day, emerging at night to hunt. We want to be honest that it's genuinely not aggressive except toward tank mates small enough to be swallowed, and it can genuinely be difficult to feed anything besides live foods initially. We want to be upfront: this species is not reef safe, and is genuinely unsafe to house with smaller fish, small crabs, or ornamental crustaceans.
 
🟤⚪ Highlights
🎨 Dark Body With Yellow-White Horizontal Lines: A genuinely distinctive, uniquely patterned soapfish
⚠️ Genuinely Capable of Poisoning an Entire Tank: Please read our disclosure above before purchasing
🌙 Genuinely Nocturnal & Secretive: Spends daylight hours hidden in caves and ledges
⚠️ Not Reef Safe: Unsafe with smaller fish, small crabs, and ornamental crustaceans
🍽️ Genuinely Challenging to Feed: May initially require live foods