---
title: Yellowspotted Scorpionfish (Sebastapistes cyanostigma)
scientific_name: Sebastapistes cyanostigma
common_name: Yellowspotted Scorpionfish
taxon: Scorpionfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-30T21:38:04.624Z
updated: 2026-08-13T23:36:08.701Z
tags: Yellowspotted Scorpionfish, Sebastapistes cyanostigma, Scorpionfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/scorpionfishes/yellowspotted-scorpionfish
---

# Yellowspotted Scorpionfish (*Sebastapistes cyanostigma*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Scorpionfishes (*Scorpaenidae*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 2-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Wedged among the branches of Pocillopora coral heads
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- small stout scorpionfish, mottled red-brown with bright yellow spots
- always inside a branching coral head, never on open rubble
- skin flaps around the jaw and above the eyes
- length up to 10 cm

A scorpionfish the size of a thumb, spotted in yellow, wedged deep among the branches of a living Pocillopora head. Ten centimeters (4 in), and one that breaks the family habit of sitting on open bottom.

Living inside a coral colony solves two problems at once. Nothing large can reach in after it, and the small fish and shrimps it eats come to the coral anyway - so the ambush works without the fish having to find a good spot on the sand and hope. Its neighbors inside the same head are usually guard crabs and coral gobies, none of which it can catch.

The yellow spots are the field mark, and they are surprisingly visible in a torch beam against the coral. Without light it is invisible.

The spines carry the family venom. Nobody gets stung by one on purpose, but coral heads are exactly what people grab when a current catches them, which is worth remembering. Hot water at about 45 C (113 F) if it happens, then a doctor.

## Also known as

- **English:** Yellowspotted Scorpionfish, Bicolor Rosefish, Coral Scorpionfish
- **French:** Poisson-scorpion à tache jaune
- **German:** Gelbflecken-Drachenkopf
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-pedra-bicolor
- **Dutch:** Koraalschorpioenvis
- **Czech:** paropušnice světloskvrnná
- **Japanese:** カスリフサカサゴ, Kasuri-fusakasago, Kasurifusakasago
- **Chinese:** 石狗公, 石頭魚, 鰭點鮋
- **AF:** Geelspikkel-skerpioenvis

## Scientific synonyms

- *Scorpaena albobrunnea* Günther, 1874
- *Scorpaena cyanostigma* Bleeker, 1856
- *Scorpaena kowiensis* Smith, 1935
- *Sebastapistes albobrunnea* (Günther, 1874)
- *Sebastapistes kowiensis* (Smith, 1935)

## Range

Comoros, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

---

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