[2] The wrasses live in small shoals consisting of one male and several 'attendant' females and juveniles.

T., et al., 2012) The male fish has a deeper body, and differs significantly in colouration.

For example, the male has very distinctive bands, whereas the female is paler in colour and only has 2 dark spots.(Greenwood.

T. et al., 2012) The fish was named after Andreas Fleming Stewart Sandager, a lighthouse keeper in New Zealand who collected the first specimen.

As the scientific name has sandeyeri as the specific epithet, a proposal was made in 1927 to change it to "sandageri" on the theory that the original description constituted a misspelling.