Barred soapfish

Amazing fact

Young barred soapfish have thread-like dorsal-fin spines that disappear as they grow.

新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海

Barred soapfish in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

Young barred soapfish have thread-like dorsal-fin spines that disappear as they grow.

Source新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — キハッソク

THE REAL WORLD

The real Barred soapfish

Scientific name: Diploprion bifasciatum
Japanese name: キハッソク
Group: Ocean animals

Order: Perciformes
Family: Serranidae
Genus: Diploprion

Facts about the real animal.

Where the name “Barred soapfish” comes from

The name soapfish comes from the way its mucus makes water foam.

ニフレル

It lives along the coasts from Sagami Bay to Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands, around Jeju and Taiwan, along the coast of China, and in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.

鳥羽水族館 — キハッソク

Its jaws open wide, so it can swallow surprisingly large prey whole.

鳥羽水族館 — キハッソク

When it is stressed, it releases a toxin called grammistin from its skin.

鳥羽水族館 — キハッソク

How the Barred soapfish lives

It lives on coastal rocky and coral reefs, often near caves and crevices. It mainly catches and eats fish.

Museums Victoria

Basic data

Range: The Indo-West Pacific west of India

鳥羽水族館

Where the Barred soapfish has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan Asia World oceans Coasts

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

日本語: キハッソク
简体中文: 双带鲈
繁體中文: 雙帶黃鱸
한국어: 두줄벤자리
Français: Savonnette à deux bandes
Português (Brasil): Peixe-sabão-de-máscara-preta
Tiếng Việt: Cá mú vàng hai sọc đen
Русский: Жёлтый диплоприон
ไทย: ปลากะพงเหลืองเล็ก

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

鳥羽水族館 — キハッソクChecked: 2026-11-04
ニフレル — キハッソクChecked: 2026-11-07
Museums Victoria — Barred Soapfish, Diploprion bifasciatumChecked: 2026-11-07
新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — キハッソクChecked: 2026-11-07

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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