Definition of "goatfish" [goat•fish]

• Any of various brightly colored fishes of the family Mullidae of warm seas, having two sensory barbels on the chin. Also called red mullet, surmullet. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It is suggested that younger children, whose developing nervous systems are susceptible to damage by contaminants, obtain omega-3 from species such as goatfish, anchovies or pilchard."
• "And while my identification skills are at the "purple one with yellow stripes" level, I do also enjoy the evocative names: three-stripe fusilier, diagonal-banded sweetlips, filamented flake, oblong silver biddy and freckled goatfish, not to mention the charming category of odd-shaped bottom dwellers."
• "Other important components of the fringing reef ecosystem include algae (brown, red and green), marine invertebrates (shrimp, lobster, crabs and sea urchins) and fishes (parrotfish, wrasses, damselfish, surgeonfish, goatfish, jacks and sharks)."