---
title: Two-spotted Flathead (Onigocia bimaculata)
scientific_name: Onigocia bimaculata
common_name: Two-spotted Flathead
taxon: Flatheads
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-31T17:39:32.309Z
updated: 2026-08-23T19:54:47.344Z
tags: Two-spotted Flathead, Onigocia bimaculata, Flatheads, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/flatheads/two-spotted-flathead
---

# Two-spotted Flathead (*Onigocia bimaculata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Flatheads (*Platycephalidae*)
- **Size:** up to 8 cm
- **Depth:** 3-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble patches between reef
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- black spots on the pelvic fins
- tiny, up to 8 cm, where the other local flatheads reach a meter
- head flattened from above with the eyes on top
- sharp spines on the head and gill covers

It is a flathead the length of a matchbox, and its relatives on the same sand reach a meter.

That range inside one family is worth noticing, because the design does not change with the size. Crocodilefish, bartail flathead and this one are all built identically: head pressed flat from above, eyes on top, mouth wide, body tapering back, colored to match the sediment exactly, and all of them hunt by lying still until something small enough passes within a body length. Scale the animal down by a factor of ten and it still works, because ambush does not depend on being large, only on being unrecognizable and faster over the first ten centimeters than the prey is.

The difference is only in what counts as prey. The big ones take fish; this one takes small crustaceans and fish fry off the sand.

It carries the family's other feature too: sharp spines on the head and gill covers, which is why picking up a flathead is a bad idea at any size.

Black spots on the pelvic fins are the mark, if you find one at all. At eight centimeters and the color of sand, most are missed.

## Also known as

- **English:** Two-spotted Flathead, Twospot Flathead
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-crocodilo-de-duas-pintas
- **Czech:** zploštělec dvouskvrnný
- **Japanese:** セホシオニゴチ, Sehoshionigochi

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/flatheads/two-spotted-flathead)*
*Updated: August 23, 2026*