---
title: Orbicular Batfish (Platax orbicularis)
scientific_name: Platax orbicularis
common_name: Orbicular Batfish
taxon: Spadefishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-23T20:58:14.077Z
updated: 2026-08-15T23:09:49.793Z
tags: Orbicular Batfish, Platax orbicularis, Spadefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/spadefishes/orbicular-batfish
---

# Orbicular Batfish (*Platax orbicularis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Spadefishes (*Ephippidae*)
- **Size:** 60 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sheltered coastal reefs, lagoons and wrecks; juveniles in mangroves
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- near-circular silver disc, as tall as it is long
- dark bar through the eye and a second behind the head
- black pelvic fins
- juveniles reddish brown and leaf-like, drifting on their side
- up to 60 cm

The juvenile is a dead leaf. It is reddish brown with dark blotches, it lies over on its side, and it drifts at the surface with the current in mangroves and sheltered bays - not swimming so much as being carried. Predators pass it. Only when the fish grows past roughly 10 cm does it start behaving like a fish at all.

The adult is nothing like it: a silver disc as tall as it is long, up to 60 cm across, with a dark bar through the eye and a second behind the head, black pelvic fins, and an unhurried curiosity that brings it in to inspect divers instead of away from them. Older fish develop a bony swelling between the eyes and a hollow in the snout profile.

They live over sand near sheltered reefs, in lagoons and around wrecks, alone or in small groups, feeding on algae, invertebrates and small fish. In some places they form large schools.

The genus name is the Greek platys, flat, which is the whole animal in one word.

## Also known as

- **English:** batfish, Orbiculate Batfish, circular spadefish
- **Arabic:** سمك الخفاش الدائري
- **French:** Feuilles de Palétuviers, Poisson Chauve-souris Orbiculaire, Platax orbiculaire
- **Italian:** Pesce pipistrello bruno
- **German:** Rundkopf-Fledermausfisch
- **Spanish:** Paguala circular, Dalapugán
- **Portuguese:** Morcego, Peixe-bumerangue-costeiro
- **Dutch:** Ronde vleermuisvis
- **Czech:** netopýrník obecný
- **Japanese:** ナンヨウツバメウオ, Nan-yotsubameuo, Tsubame-uo
- **Chinese:** 圓眼燕魚
- **Russian:** Голубой платакс
- **DA:** Almindelig flagermusfisk
- **FIJ:** Lati ni daveta
- **KO:** 남방제비활치
- **TGL:** Bunak
- **TH:** ปลาหูช้างกลม

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chaetodon orbicularis* Forsskål, 1775
- *Chaetodon vespertilio* Bloch, 1787
- *Platax albipunctatus* Rüppell, 1829
- *Platax blochii* Cuvier, 1831
- *Platax ehrenbergii* Cuvier, 1831
- *Platax guttulatuas* Cuvier, 1831
- *Platax guttulatus* Cuvier, 1831
- *Platax obricularis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Platax orbicularia* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Platax orbicularius* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Platax vespertilio* (Bloch, 1787)

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/spadefishes/orbicular-batfish)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*