---
title: Sammara Squirrelfish (Neoniphon sammara)
scientific_name: Neoniphon sammara
common_name: Sammara Squirrelfish
taxon: Squirrelfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-27T00:15:23.903Z
updated: 2026-08-15T23:06:42.012Z
tags: Sammara Squirrelfish, Neoniphon sammara, Squirrelfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/squirrelfishes/sammara-squirrelfish
---

# Sammara Squirrelfish (*Neoniphon sammara*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Squirrelfishes (*Holocentrinae*)
- **Size:** up to 32 cm
- **Depth:** 1-46 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Reef flats and lagoons, sheltering inside branching Acropora by day
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **Hazard:** Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- fine red-brown stripes along the scale rows on a silvery body
- blood-red blotch on the front of the spiny dorsal fin
- large eye and a sharp spine at the corner of the gill cover
- usually inside branching coral, in ones and twos
- up to 32 cm

Squirrelfish hear better than almost anything else on the reef. In this family the front of the swim bladder is drawn out into a pair of extensions that press against the inner ear, so the bladder works as an eardrum and passes pressure changes straight into the hearing organ. They also talk: grunts, staccato clicks and growls, used in arguments over shelter and at anything that comes too close to it.

By day it hides, and it is particular about where. This is the squirrelfish that lives inside branching Acropora, sitting among the branches in ones and twos on reef flats and in lagoons, shallower than the rest of its family. At night it comes out over sand and seagrass for shrimp, small crabs and fish.

Handle it and you will regret it. There is a sharp spine at the corner of the gill cover with venom associated with it, and squirrelfish spines produce a wound that hurts far out of proportion to its size.

It is easy to name underwater: fine red-brown stripes along the scale rows on a silvery body, and a blood-red blotch on the front of the spiny dorsal fin.

## Also known as

- **English:** sammara squirrelfish, Armed Squirrel-fish, Blood-spot Squirrel-fish
- **Hebrew:** ברקן כסוף
- **French:** Marignan tacheté, Poisson-écureuil tachet, Poisson-écureuil tacheté
- **Italian:** Pesce scoiattolo macchiato di sangue, Pesce scoiattolo sammara
- **German:** Blutfleck-Husar
- **Spanish:** Candil Samara, Carajuelo delgado
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-esquilo-de-Sammara
- **Dutch:** Vlekvin Eekhoornvis
- **Czech:** pruhatec skvrnoploutvý
- **Japanese:** ウケグチイットウダイ, Ukeguchiittodai
- **Chinese:** 瀾公妾, 莎姆新东洋鳂, 莎姆新東洋金鱗魚
- **Russian:** Пятнистый пламенщик
- **CA:** Peix esquirol del sud

## Scientific synonyms

- *Flammeo sammara* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Holocentrum sammana* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Holocentrum sammara* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Holocentrus rubrofuscus* Lacepède, 1802
- *Holocentrus sammara* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Kutaflammeo sammara* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Labrus angulosus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Neoniphon hasta* De Vis, 1884
- *Sciaena sammara* Forsskål, 1775

## Range

Comoros, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, North Atlantic Ocean, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

---

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