---
title: Gota Abu Ramada
type: Reef dive site
location: Hurghada, Red Sea, Egypt
coordinates: 27.138900756835938, 33.9536018371582
max_depth_m: 40
published: 2023-11-25T21:59:56.557Z
updated: 2026-09-06T15:02:20.751Z
tags: Gota Abu Ramada, Reef, Red Sea, Dive site, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/diving/dive-sites/gota-abu-ramada
---

# Gota Abu Ramada

## Quick facts

- **Type:** Reef
- **Location:** Hurghada, Red Sea, Egypt
- **Coordinates:** 27.138900756835938, 33.9536018371582
- **Max depth:** 40 m
- **Depth notes:** 0-15m main reef; 40m+ at the outer perimeter
- **Level:** Advanced
- **Rating:** 5.0 / 5

## Good to know

- Suitable for beginners
- Best for advanced divers
- Drift dive
- Night dives possible
- Pinnacles

## Overview

Gota Abu Ramada is an oval patch reef standing alone on a flat sand bottom, and that isolation is the dive. There is no other hard structure within about 3 km, so everything needing shelter concentrates on the one place that offers it. Hurghada boats call it the Aquarium. The reef top runs from the surface to 15 m, with coral outcrops scattered across the sand around it and the outer perimeter dropping past 40 m.

## Location

About 14.5 km southeast of Hurghada marina, roughly an hour by boat.

## Conditions

Sheltered, with little current on most days. The shallow profile keeps the whole reef inside recreational limits, which is why it takes training dives and night dives as readily as it takes first Red Sea dives. On windier days moving water turns it into a gentle drift.

## Dive plan

Boats moor on the southern flank and the dive runs either east or west from there. East holds the better ground: three pinnacles standing 15 to 20 m off the main reef, a coral garden between them, large brain corals spilling down the slope and small grottoes cut into the base.

The shallow, bright water over the sand is the reason photographers keep coming back, and the site can also be run as a drift.

## What to see

Forty-four species have been photographed on this reef for the catalogue so far. The most frequent are elegant unicornfish, big blue octopus and giant clam, followed by blackside hawkfish, bluecheek butterflyfish and bluespotted ribbontail ray. Schooling fish carry the site: bannerfish, sweetlips, goatfish, glassfish and yellowfin goatfish in numbers. Crocodilefish sit on the sand between the outcrops, cornetfish hang vertically alongside the coral heads, and eagle rays and turtles appear over the outer perimeter. Titan triggerfish hold nests here through the summer.

## Species recorded here (45)

- Arabian Crust-sponge (*Hemimycale arabica*)
- Big Blue Octopus (*Octopus cyanea*)
- Blackside Hawkfish (*Paracirrhites forsteri*)
- Blackspotted Rubberlip (*Plectorhinchus gaterinus*)
- Bluecheek Butterflyfish (*Chaetodon semilarvatus*)
- Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray (*Taeniura lymma*)
- Brownspotted Grouper (*Epinephelus geoffroyi*)
- Bubble Coral (*Plerogyra sinuosa*)
- Christmas Tree Worm (*Spirobranchus giganteus*)
- Crescent-tail Bigeye (*Priacanthus hamrur*)
- Crocodilefish (*Papilloculiceps longiceps*)
- Crown Jellyfish (*Nausithoe punctata*)
- Devil Scorpionfish (*Inimicus filamentosus*)
- Divided Flatworm (*Pseudoceros dimidiatus*)
- Elegant Unicornfish (*Naso elegans*)
- Five-lined Cardinalfish (*Cheilodipterus quinquelineatus*)
- Giant Clam (*Tridacna maxima*)
- Giant Moray (*Gymnothorax javanicus*)
- Goldblotch Grouper (*Epinephelus costae*)
- Half-and-half Chromis (*Pycnochromis iomelas*)
- Klunzinger's Wrasse (*Thalassoma rueppellii*)
- Lined Butterflyfish (*Chaetodon lineolatus*)
- Long-Spined Brittle Star (*Ophiothrix savignyi*)
- Lyretail Anthias (*Pseudanthias squamipinnis*)
- Masked Puffer (*Arothron diadematus*)
- Net Fire Coral (*Millepora dichotoma*)
- Orange-striped Triggerfish (*Balistapus undulatus*)
- Orbicular Batfish (*Platax orbicularis*)
- Peacock Grouper (*Cephalopholis argus*)
- Picasso Triggerfish (*Rhinecanthus assasi*)
- Polyp Sponge (*Mycale fistulifera*)
- Pulsating Xenid (*Heteroxenia fuscescens*)
- Red Sea Bannerfish (*Heniochus intermedius*)
- Red Sea Goatfish (*Parupeneus forsskali*)
- Red-breasted Wrasse (*Cheilinus quinquecinctus*)
- Regal Angelfish (*Pygoplites diacanthus*)
- Sammara Squirrelfish (*Neoniphon sammara*)
- Slingjaw Wrasse (*Epibulus insidiator*)
- Smooth Cornetfish (*Fistularia commersoni*)
- Speckled Sandperch (*Parapercis hexophtalma*)
- Squaretail Rabbitfish (*Siganus luridus*)
- Tasseled Scorpionfish (*Scorpaenopsis oxycephala*)
- Titan Triggerfish (*Balistoides viridescens*)
- White Stinger (*Macrorhynchia philippina*)
- Yellowfin Goatfish (*Mulloidichthys vanicolensis*)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/diving/dive-sites/gota-abu-ramada)*
*Updated: September 6, 2026*