---
title: Little Dragonfish (Eurypegasus draconis)
scientific_name: Eurypegasus draconis
common_name: Little Dragonfish
taxon: Pegasuses
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-26T14:45:28.713Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:44.951Z
tags: Little Dragonfish, Eurypegasus draconis, Pegasuses, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pegasuses/little-dragonfish
---

# Little Dragonfish (*Eurypegasus draconis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Pegasuses (*Pegasidae*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 3-90 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Open sand and silt, walking on the bottom
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- flat armored body encased in bony plates, with a long flattened snout
- wide wing-like pectoral fins held out to the sides
- walks on stiff pelvic fins instead of swimming, usually in a pair
- length up to 10 cm

A fish encased in armor: fused bony plates around a flattened body, a long spade of a snout, and wide pectoral fins held out like wings. Ten centimeters (4 in) at most, and almost always found as a pair walking slowly over open sand.

Walking is literal. The pelvic fins are stiffened into a pair of struts, and the animal moves by placing them one after another rather than by swimming, which for a fish in the open on bare sediment is a way of not attracting attention. It can swim when pushed and looks wrong doing it.

The armor creates a problem the family solved oddly: a rigid plated shell cannot grow. So a dragonfish sheds the entire outer layer in one piece every few days, like an insect, and comes out slightly larger - a molt, in a vertebrate, which almost nothing else does.

Feeding is done by suction through that long snout, which the fish pushes into sand to pull out tiny crustaceans and worms. Pairs stay together for long periods, which is unusual enough in small reef fish to be worth watching for.

## Also known as

- **English:** short dragonfish, Dragon Sea Moth, Common Seamoth
- **Hebrew:** פגסוס דרקוני
- **French:** Dragon de mer, Petit dragon, Poisson-pégase
- **German:** Seemotte
- **Spanish:** Pez pegaso
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-mariposa-anão
- **Dutch:** Dwergvleugelpaardvis
- **Czech:** dráček můrovitý
- **Japanese:** ウミテング, Umitengu
- **Chinese:** 宽海蛾鱼, 寬海蛾魚, 寬海蛾魚(龍海蛾魚)
- **Russian:** Пегас-дракон
- **AF:** Seemot
- **DA:** Kort pegasusfisk
- **ET:** Kiiktiibhobu, Lohe-liblikhobu
- **MSA:** Belalang karang, Kupu-kupu naga
- **TH:** ปลาผีเสื้อกลางคืนสั้น
- **VI:** Cá Rồng thân to

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cataphractus draco* Gronow, 1854
- *Europegasus draconis* (Linnaeus, 1766)
- *Pegassus draco* Shaw, 1804
- *Pegasus draco* Shaw, 1804
- *Pegasus draconis* Linnaeus, 1766
- *Pegasus latirostris* Richardson, 1846
- *Pegasus pauciradiatus* Ogilby, 1886
- *Pegasus umitengu* (Jordan & Snyder, 1901)
- *Surypegasus draconis* (Linnaeus, 1766)
- *Zalises draconis* (Linnaeus, 1766)
- *Zalises umitengu* Jordan & Snyder, 1901

## Range

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/pegasuses/little-dragonfish)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*