---
title: Crescent-tail Bigeye (Priacanthus hamrur)
scientific_name: Priacanthus hamrur
common_name: Crescent-tail Bigeye
taxon: Bigeyes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-25T12:22:58.873Z
updated: 2026-08-15T23:06:03.138Z
tags: Crescent-tail Bigeye, Priacanthus hamrur, Bigeyes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/bigeyes/crescent-tail-bigeye
---

# Crescent-tail Bigeye (*Priacanthus hamrur*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Bigeyes (*Priacanthidae*)
- **Size:** up to 45 cm
- **Depth:** 8-250 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Outer reef slopes, overhangs and wrecks by day
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- very large eye that flares in a torch beam
- deep, flat-sided body, solid red or silver with red bars
- tail cut into a crescent, the corners drawn out
- oblique mouth with a jutting lower jaw
- up to 45 cm

Red is the first color the sea takes away. Below about 15 m there is no red light left to reflect, so a red fish looks black, and at 40 m a bigeye is a shadow with an eye in it. It is the cheapest camouflage in the ocean, and this fish can switch it off in about a second: solid red, silver with broad red bars, or blotched, all on the same animal within a few breaths.

The eye is the other half of the design. It is enormous, packed with rod cells and backed by a reflective layer that bounces light back through the retina for a second pass, which is why a torch catches it as a bright coin from ten meters away. The fish hunts after dark on small fish, shrimp, crabs and squid.

By day it hangs alone or in loose groups on outer slopes, under overhangs and around wrecks, usually between 30 and 50 m, though the species goes down past 200. It hovers slightly nose-up and moves only when you get too close.

The tail is the identification. Here the rear margin is cut into a crescent with the corners drawn out; the similar bigeyes have a tail that is rounded or barely concave.

## Also known as

- **English:** goggle-eye, Bigeye snapper, moontail bullseye
- **Arabic:** Hamrah
- **Hebrew:** חכליל הדמדומים
- **French:** Beauclaire lanterne, Beauclaire miroir, Gros-yeux commun
- **Italian:** perchia dai grandi occhi
- **German:** Gewöhnlicher Großaugenbarsch, Riff-Großaugenbarsch
- **Portuguese:** Catalufa-rabo-de-lua, Olho-de-cão-cauda-crescente
- **Dutch:** Rifgrootoogbaars
- **Czech:** očař obecný
- **Japanese:** ホウセキキントキ, Hosekikintoki
- **Chinese:** 嚴公仔, 寶石大眼鯛, 紅目鰱
- **Russian:** Бычеглаз хамрур
- **AF:** Sekelstert grootoog
- **DA:** Månehalet storøjefisk
- **FI:** sirppisuurisilmä
- **MSA:** Barau-barau laut, Lolong bara, Mata besar
- **TGL:** Bisugo
- **TH:** ปลาตาหวานหางวงเดือน

## Scientific synonyms

- *Anthias macrophthalmus* Bloch, 1792
- *Boops asper* Gronow, 1854
- *Priacanthias hamrur* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Priacanthus dubius* Temminck & Schlegel, 1842
- *Priacanthus fax* Valenciennes, 1831
- *Priacanthus hamrua* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Priacanthus hamrus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Priacanthus hanirur* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Priacanthus longipinnis* Borodin, 1932
- *Priacanthus schlegelii* Hilgendorf, 1879
- *Priacanthus speculum* Valenciennes, 1831
- *Sciaena hamrur* Forsskål, 1775

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, East Africa, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/bigeyes/crescent-tail-bigeye)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*