---
title: Squaretail Rabbitfish (Siganus luridus)
scientific_name: Siganus luridus
common_name: Squaretail Rabbitfish
taxon: Rabbitfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-29T16:47:25.387Z
updated: 2026-08-13T16:13:13.083Z
tags: Squaretail Rabbitfish, Siganus luridus, Rabbitfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/rabbitfishes/squretail-rabbitfish
---

# Squaretail Rabbitfish (*Siganus luridus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Rabbitfishes (*Siganidae*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm
- **Depth:** 2-40 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Algae-covered rock and rubble on shallow reef
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- plain dark olive-brown body with fine pale speckles, no stripes
- squared-off tail, unlike the forked tail of its striped relative
- small mouth held low for grazing
- almost always in a pair, the two fish rarely more than a meter apart
- length up to 30 cm

A plain olive-brown fish with a squared-off tail, grazing algae off rock in the shallows, up to 30 cm (12 in). Unremarkable to look at, and one of the most consequential fish in this sea.

Watch a pair for a minute and something odd shows up. Rabbitfish feed in twos, and while one puts its head down into the turf, the other stops eating and holds position facing outward, watching. Then they swap. Fish were not supposed to do this - taking turns at a cost to yourself, so a partner can eat safely, is behavior we file under primates and birds - and it was documented in these unremarkable grazers.

The spines are the other thing. Thirteen in the dorsal fin, seven in the anal, each grooved and venomous, and a sting is out of proportion to the size of the fish. They are folded flat while it swims and go up the moment it is cornered, which is why the injuries happen to hands in nets and buckets.

And it travels. This species went north through the Suez Canal and is now one of the two rabbitfish that dominate the eastern Mediterranean, where it grazes algal forests down to bare rock. What is an ordinary reef herbivore here rewrote an entire sea over there.

## Also known as

- **English:** dusky spinefoot, squaretail rabbitfish
- **Arabic:** سمكة الأرنب المكفهرة, سمكة الصافي الداكنة
- **Hebrew:** סיכן הודי
- **French:** Poisson-lapin à queue tronquée, Poisson-lapin lessepsien, Poisson-lapin sombre
- **Italian:** Pesce coniglio scuro, Sigano
- **German:** Brauner Kaninchenfisch
- **Spanish:** Sigano nebuloso
- **Greek:** Μαύρη Κουρκούνα, Μαύρη Προσφυγούλα, Μαύρη αγριόσαλπα
- **Turkish:** sokar baligi
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-coelho-escuro
- **Dutch:** Bruine konijnvis
- **Polish:** Sygan Wachlarzogon
- **Czech:** králíčkovec nažloutlý
- **Russian:** Смуглый сиган
- **CA:** Gitano críptic
- **DA:** Mørk kaninfisk
- **FI:** suklaakaniinikala
- **MSA:** Debam, Dengkis

## Scientific synonyms

- *Amphacanthus abhortani* Valenciennes, 1835
- *Amphacanthus luridus* Rüppell, 1829
- *Teuthis lurida* (Rüppell, 1829)

## Range

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

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/rabbitfishes/squretail-rabbitfish)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*