---
title: Poss’ Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis possi)
scientific_name: Scorpaenopsis possi
common_name: Poss’ Scorpionfish
taxon: Scorpionfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-30T21:19:36.864Z
updated: 2026-08-14T18:58:06.996Z
tags: Poss’ Scorpionfish, Scorpaenopsis possi, Scorpionfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scorpionfishes/poss-scorpionfish
---

# Poss’ Scorpionfish (*Scorpaenopsis possi*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scorpionfishes (*Scorpaenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 19 cm
- **Depth:** 2-55 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coral and rubble on reef slopes
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- mottled brown-red, with a pale patch on the rear half of the body in many fish
- hump behind the head, less pronounced than in the false stonefish
- underside of the pectoral fins pale with dark bands, shown when it moves
- length up to 19 cm

A mottled ambush scorpionfish of reef slopes, nineteen centimeters (7.5 in), and one of a group that gives fish identification a bad name.

The genus contains several species here that differ mainly in the pattern under the pectoral fins, the shape of the hump behind the head and the arrangement of skin flaps - features that need the fish to move, or to be photographed from underneath, before they can be checked. Color is no help at all: any of them can be red, brown, gray or purple depending on where they are sitting.

What can be said reliably is the behavior, and it is the same for all of them: sit still on the bottom, look like rubble, and strike anything small that comes within a body length. This one hunts at night and spends the day motionless in the open.

Venomous dorsal spines, no aggression, and the usual first aid - hot water at 45 C (113 F) and a doctor. If you photograph one, get the pectoral fin undersides; that is the frame that names it.

## Also known as

- **English:** Poss's Scorpionfish, Poss' Scorpionfish
- **French:** Poisson-scorpion de Poos, Poisson-scorpion de Poss
- **Czech:** paropušnice Possova
- **Japanese:** ミミトゲオニカサゴ, Mimitogeonikasago
- **Chinese:** 博氏石狗公, 沙薑虎, 波氏擬鮋
- **FIJ:** delasiga
- **TAH:** nohu pu'a

---

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