Appearance
The ribboned sweetlips has fleshy lips which become moderately swollen as the fish ages. There are 6 pores on its chin bit there is no median pit. The dorsal fin contains 12-13 spines and 19-22 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 7-8 soft rays. They have a background colour which is brown to yellowish grey broken by 5 to 9 quite thin grey or white horizontal stripes edged with dark brown on the body and extending around the snout, The fins are yellow with darker stripes on the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin, the caudal fin and the pectoral fin, these fade with age and in the oldest fish that are absent. The eyes and the lips are yellowish while the inside of the mouth is bright red and the chin is white. The juveniles less stripes on their orange-brown bodies, the most obvious being a central black band. This species attains a maximum total length of 50 cm (20 in).
