---
title: Lowfin Scorpionfish (Scorpaenodes parvipinnis)
scientific_name: Scorpaenodes parvipinnis
common_name: Lowfin Scorpionfish
taxon: Scorpionfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-30T20:51:56.679Z
updated: 2026-08-14T20:03:34.231Z
tags: Lowfin Scorpionfish, Scorpaenodes parvipinnis, Scorpionfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scorpionfishes/lowfin-scorpionfish
---

# Lowfin Scorpionfish (*Scorpaenodes parvipinnis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scorpionfishes (*Scorpaenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 14 cm
- **Depth:** 3-49 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Crevices in coral rock and rubble
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- small mottled scorpionfish with a low, evenly spined dorsal fin
- dark spot on the rear of the gill cover
- usually deep in a crevice with only the head visible
- length up to 14 cm

A small mottled scorpionfish that lives inside the reef, and a reminder that most of the fish on a coral reef are ones nobody sees.

Surveys that take a section of reef apart consistently find that cryptic fishes - blennies, gobies, small scorpionfishes, cardinalfishes hiding in the structure - account for a large share of the individuals present and a serious share of the food supply. They are eaten constantly by everything larger, and they are replaced constantly. The visible reef is a thin layer over that.

This species is one of them: fourteen centimeters (5.5 in), wedged into a crevice by day, out on the rubble at night for small crustaceans, and gone before a torch beam settles.

Venomous dorsal spines. It is small enough to be a minor sting rather than a serious one, and the treatment is the same - hot water at about 45 C (113 F), then a doctor.

## Also known as

- **English:** lowfin scorpionfish, Coral Scorpionfish, Shortfin Scorpionfish
- **French:** Poisson-scorpion à Epines Courtes, Poisson-scorpion à épines courtes
- **Dutch:** Kortvinschorpioenvis
- **Czech:** paropušnice maloploutvá
- **Japanese:** ヒメサンゴカサゴ, Himesangokasago
- **Chinese:** 短翅小鮋, 石狗公, 石頭魚
- **FIJ:** tagitagikaua

## Scientific synonyms

- *Paronescodes asperrimus* Smith, 1958
- *Scorpaena parvipinnis* Garrett, 1864
- *Scorpaenodes paruipinis* (Garrett, 1864)
- *Scorpaenoides parvipinnis* (Garrett, 1864)

## Range

Comoros, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scorpionfishes/lowfin-scorpionfish)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*