---
title: Devil Scorpionfish (Inimicus filamentosus)
scientific_name: Inimicus filamentosus
common_name: Devil Scorpionfish
taxon: Stonefishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-30T00:02:01.045Z
updated: 2026-08-13T16:23:04.455Z
tags: Devil Scorpionfish, Inimicus filamentosus, Stonefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/stonefishes/devil-scorpionfish
---

# Devil Scorpionfish (*Inimicus filamentosus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Stonefishes (*Synanceiinae*)
- **Size:** up to 25 cm
- **Weight:** up to 0.48 kg
- **Depth:** 5-45 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and silt beside reef, half-buried
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- knobbly upturned face with eyes and mouth pointing up
- dull brown, gray or rust, usually under a layer of sand
- two lowest pectoral rays on each side separate, used as legs
- flashes brilliant orange, yellow and black fin undersides when disturbed
- length up to 25 cm

A knobbly, upturned face lying in the sand with everything else buried - eyes up, mouth up, and no outline a person can resolve. Twenty-five centimeters (10 in) of ambush.

It walks. The two lowest rays of each pectoral fin are detached from the rest of the fin and thickened into fingers, and the fish uses them as legs, creeping across the bottom one step at a time. It is not swimming and it is not crawling on its belly - it is walking, slowly, in a way that stirs up nothing and looks like nothing.

If that fails, it does the other thing. The dull fish opens its pectoral fins and their undersides are brilliant - orange, yellow, black bands, entirely hidden a second earlier. The display is a warning, and behind it stand grooved venomous spines along the back.

A sting from any member of this family is a hot-water case: the venom is protein, and 45 C (113 F) for 30 to 90 minutes breaks it down, then a doctor. Nothing about this animal is aggressive. Every injury is a hand or a knee that came down on a patch of sand that turned out not to be sand.

## Also known as

- **English:** two-stick stingfish, Barred ghoul, Filament-finned stinger
- **Hebrew:** אבנונית מרתיעה
- **French:** Marcheur de mer Rouge, Poisson pierre béquillard, Rascasse à filaments
- **German:** Indischer Walkman
- **Spanish:** Pez piedra muletero
- **Dutch:** Filament Duivelsvis
- **Czech:** inimikus vláknitý
- **Chinese:** 絲狀鬼鮋
- **Russian:** Нитеперая бородавчатка
- **DA:** Sadelhovedet djævlefisk

## Scientific synonyms

- *Inimicus dactylus* Cornic, 1987
- *Pelor didactylum* Regan, 1908
- *Pelor filamentosum* Cuvier, 1829
- *Pelor filamentosus* Cuvier, 1829

## Range

Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Red Sea, Seychelles, Tanzania

---

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