What is this pretty fish I shot in Fiji?

They like to sit on the sand.

They're about 6-8" long.

They have a black spot on their tail.

What do you call them?

This is a type of sand perch. I don't know the species and I don't have a fish book here! With the species of sand perch that is common in the Red Sea the males have lines on their cheeks and the females have spots - so maybe this is a male? Nice pic, too.

Brooke,

Over here in Aust. these fish go by a common name of "grubfish" of which there are many. In the case of your picture posted it most resembles a Blacktail Grubfish (Parapercis hexophtalma) that we have over here. A fairly common species on the east coast.

Hope this helps.

Parapercis hexophtalma is the same sandperch that Alex mentioned to be common in Red Sea. Please find attached a picture of one male from Sharm el Sheikh. The black spot in tail does not match any of the other 11 Parapercis species in Lieske & Myers; however, FishBase.org has 54 valid Parapercis species...

What is this pretty fish I shot in Fiji?

Glad you got your id, but I have to comment on your photo. That is really nice photograph. Whenever I tried to capture an image of that type of fish... well, let's just say I got a lot of fish butt pictures. Nice job!