---
title: Dwarf Stonefish (Synanceia nana)
scientific_name: Synanceia nana
common_name: Dwarf Stonefish
taxon: Stonefishes
published: 2024-10-31T20:48:04.598Z
updated: 2026-08-13T09:51:45.821Z
tags: Dwarf Stonefish, Synanceia nana, Stonefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/stonefishes/dwarf-stonefish
---

# Dwarf Stonefish (*Synanceia nana*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Stonefishes (*Synanceiinae*)
- **Size:** up to 13.5 cm
- **Depth:** 3-18 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Rock and rubble on shallow reef, half-buried and motionless
- **Reproduction:** Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous

## How to recognise it

- stonefish shape in miniature, never longer than a hand
- warty skin under a mucus layer that collects sand and algae
- eyes set high on a broad head, mouth angled upward
- 14 dorsal spines with dark edges
- length up to 13.5 cm

The smallest stonefish there is, 13.5 cm (5.3 in) against the 40 cm of its famous cousin, and the one you are most likely to be standing next to without knowing. Same warty skin under a coat of mucus that collects sand and algae, same high-set eyes, same habit of sitting still on rubble in three to eighteen meters of water.

It was described in 1973, from a bay on the Sinai coast of the Gulf of Aqaba - this sea is its type locality, and it lives here, in the Gulf and along the northwest Indian Ocean, and nowhere else. The name *nana* simply means dwarf.

Small does not mean mild. Fourteen dorsal spines carry the same paired venom glands and the same verrucotoxin as the Reef Stonefish, and they work the same way: the spines rise when the fish is disturbed, and downward weight compresses the glands and drives the venom up the shaft. A sting from this species is a hospital matter exactly like a sting from the larger one, and the first aid is the same - the limb into water as hot as the patient can stand, around 45 C (113 F), because the toxin is a protein and heat takes it apart.

What makes it worth respecting is the size. A 40 cm stonefish is at least a shape on the bottom once you know what to look for. This one is the size of a stone among stones, in the shallow rubble where people stand up, adjust a fin or put a hand down to steady themselves.

## Also known as

- **English:** Dwarf Scorpionfish, Red Sea Stonefish
- **French:** Poisson-pierre arabe
- **Italian:** Pesce pietra del Mar Rosso, Pesce pietra arabo, Pesce pietra nano
- **German:** Arabischer Steinfisch
- **Spanish:** Pez Piedra del Mar Rojo
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-pedra-do-mar-vermelho
- **Czech:** odranec malý

---

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