The shy hamlet (Hypoplectrus guttavarius) is a small Western Atlantic serranid fish, which belongs to the subclass perciformes in the class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes). To this date, seventeen species of the genus Hypoplectrus have been recognized, a third of which have been discovered in the past few years.

They are synchronous hermaphrodites; ecologically and morphologically, all are remarkably similar in major features except for their color pattern which is how they are differentiated into different species.

The name is derived from its personality because they are a solitary species that travel in pairs. They are mostly found in the Western Atlantic Ocean on Caribbean inshore areas in low depths (3–30 m or 10–100 ft) and in temperatures of about 22–27 °C (72–81 °F). Their habitat is rocks and corals. Hamlets are small and bright colored, specifically, shy hamlets have a yellow head and fins followed by a brown-black body. In addition, there are bright blue stripes around the eye and on the snout. They are carnivores and mostly feed on crustaceans such as shrimp, clam, squid etc. as well as other bony fish.

Shy hamlets were first formally described as Plectropoma guttavarium in 1852 by the Cuban zoologist Felipe Poey (1799–1891) with Havana given as the type of locality.

...