---
title: Speckled Shrimpfish (Aeoliscus punctulatus)
scientific_name: Aeoliscus punctulatus
common_name: Speckled Shrimpfish
taxon: Shrimpfishes
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2023-12-30T12:24:22.730Z
updated: 2026-08-16T06:22:54.135Z
tags: Speckled Shrimpfish, Aeoliscus punctulatus, Shrimpfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/shrimpfishes/speckled-shrimpfish
---

# Speckled Shrimpfish (*Aeoliscus punctulatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Shrimpfishes (*Centriscidae*)
- **Size:** up to 15 cm
- **Depth:** 0-40 m
- **Diet:** Planktivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Seagrass beds, sandy flats and coral reefs, often among sea urchins
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- swims vertically, snout pointing at the bottom
- body flattened into a transparent blade with a sharp lower keel
- brown stripe along the side and scattered small black spots
- often lined up among the spines of long-spined urchins
- up to 15 cm

It swims standing on its head. Not occasionally, permanently: the shrimpfish holds its body vertical with the snout pointing at the bottom and moves that way in small synchronized groups, all tilted at the same angle, drifting over seagrass and sand like a handful of glass slivers.

The body is a blade. It is flattened side to side, encased in thin transparent bony plates fused into a rigid case, and the lower edge is drawn out into a sharp keel, which is where the other name, razorfish, comes from. There is almost no flexibility left in it. The tail fin has been displaced around to the underside, behind a spine at the end of the body, and that is what lets the fish drive itself along while staying upright.

The posture is camouflage, and it is specific. Head-down among the spines of a long-spined urchin, the fish is one more spine; among the branches of a hard coral, one more branch. Push the group and it flips horizontal, darts a couple of meters, and stands up again.

Feeding is done by suction through the tube of the snout, one small planktonic crustacean at a time.

## Also known as

- **English:** speckled shrimpfish, razorfish, shrimpfish
- **German:** Gepunkteter Schnepfenmesserfisch
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-navalha-comum
- **Polish:** Brzytewnik
- **Czech:** klunatka tečkovaná
- **Chinese:** 斑紋鰕魚, 斑纹鰕鱼
- **Russian:** Пятнистая кривохвостка
- **AF:** Garnaalvis
- **DA:** Prikket bajonetfisk

## Scientific synonyms

- *Aeoliscus punctatus* (Kner, 1860)
- *Amphisile punctata* Kner, 1860
- *Amphisile punctulata* Bianconi, 1854
- *Amphisyle brevispina* Peters, 1855
- *Centriscus punctulatus* (Bianconi, 1854)

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/shrimpfishes/speckled-shrimpfish)*
*Updated: August 16, 2026*