Pacific Ocean: Indonesia to Samoa, north to Ryukyu Islands, south to Rowley Shoals in the eastern Indian Ocean and New Caledonia.

Highly variable in color and also in the size of the pale blotch (looks blue in natural light). Latter varied from being totally absent to an area almost half the body size, especially when showing nuptial colors. At the Rowley Shoals, off the north-western Australian coast, it only shows the blotch when nuptial.

Aggregations of this species occur a few meters above the edges of current-swept drop-offs. Females and males in separate aggregations or mixed sexes.