---
title: Rivulated Rabbitfish (Siganus rivulatus)
scientific_name: Siganus rivulatus
common_name: Rivulated Rabbitfish
taxon: Rabbitfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-31T22:31:59.237Z
updated: 2026-08-20T16:17:04.123Z
tags: Rivulated Rabbitfish, Siganus rivulatus, Rabbitfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/rabbitfishes/rivulated-rabbitfish
---

# Rivulated Rabbitfish (*Siganus rivulatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Rabbitfishes (*Siganidae*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Shallow reef flats, seagrass and rubble, in schools
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Endemic:** Endemic to the Red Sea
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- olive-silver body with fine wavy gold lines along the flank
- small mouth with a slightly protruding snout, made for cropping algae
- moves in schools that graze the same patch and then move on together
- length up to 30 cm

An olive-silver fish to 30 cm (12 in) with fine gold lines along the flank, in schools that arrive on a patch of algae, crop it and leave together. It is one of the most numerous grazers in shallow water here and it is treated as food across the region.

Every fin spine is venomous. Thirteen dorsal, seven anal and two pelvic spines carry venom glands, which is why the family is called spinefoot and why fishermen handle them with a rag; the sting is intensely painful and swells hard, and hot water is the standard first aid. Nothing about the fish is aggressive - the spines are strictly for whatever tries to eat or grab it.

Schooling has a purpose beyond safety. A wall of grazers can overwhelm the defense of a damselfish that farms an algae patch, which one or two fish could never enter, so the school is a way of taxing the reef's farmers.

It was also one of the first fish through the Suez Canal, reaching the Mediterranean by 1927, and it is now abundant there - one of the small number of Lessepsian migrants that became a commercial fishery in its new sea rather than a nuisance.

## Also known as

- **English:** marbled spinefoot, Little spinefoot, rivulated rabbitfish
- **Arabic:** Abu Chawke abiad, Muasta baida, Okkais abiad
- **Hebrew:** סיכן משויש
- **French:** Poisson-lapin à ventre strié, Cordonnier blanc, Sigan mabré
- **Italian:** sigano, Pesce coniglio del Mar Rosso
- **German:** Rotmeer-Kaninchenfisch
- **Spanish:** Sigan marbré, Sigano jaspeado, Siguro
- **Greek:** Agriosalpa aspri, Άσπρη Κουρκούνα, Άσπρη Προσφυγούλα
- **Turkish:** esmer sokar baligi, Çilliçarpan blığı
- **Portuguese:** Macua, Peixe-coelho-mármore
- **Dutch:** draakvis
- **Polish:** Sygan marmurkowy
- **Czech:** králíčkovec rudomořský
- **Russian:** Золотополосый сиган
- **CA:** Gitano del Mar Roja
- **DA:** Plettet kaninfisk
- **ET:** Marmor-küülikkala
- **FI:** viirukaniinikala
- **MLT:** Qawsalla
- **MSA:** Ketang lada, Belibas, Kelang

## Scientific synonyms

- *Amphacanthus rivulata* (Forsskål & Niebuhr, 1775)
- *Amphacanthus sigan* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Amphacanthus siganus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Scarus rivulatus* Forsskål & Niebuhr, 1775
- *Scarus siganus* Forsskål & Niebuhr, 1775
- *Siganus siganus* Forsskål & Niebuhr, 1775
- *Teuthis rivulata* (Forsskål & Niebuhr, 1775)
- *Teuthis rivulatus* (Forsskål & Niebuhr, 1775)
- *Teuthis sigan* (Klunzinger, 1871)
- *Teuthis sigana* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Teuthis siganus* (Forsskål, 1775)

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, Mozambique, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/rabbitfishes/rivulated-rabbitfish)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*