---
title: Flagtail Sandtilefish (Malacanthus brevirostris)
scientific_name: Malacanthus brevirostris
common_name: Flagtail Sandtilefish
taxon: Tilefishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-31T21:40:51.590Z
updated: 2026-08-23T20:20:12.977Z
tags: Flagtail Sandtilefish, Malacanthus brevirostris, Tilefishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/tilefishes/flagtail-sandtilefish
---

# Flagtail Sandtilefish (*Malacanthus brevirostris*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Tilefishes (*Malacanthidae*)
- **Size:** up to 32 cm
- **Depth:** 5-60 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open sand and rubble, always near its own rubble mound
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- pale slender body with a dark streak in the middle of the tail
- hovers just above the sand and drops into a hole under a pile of rubble
- usually in pairs over open bottom
- up to 32 cm

It builds its own house, piece by piece, out of material it carries in its mouth.

A sandtilefish excavates a burrow in open sand and then roofs and armors it with rubble: broken coral, shell fragments and small stones, collected one at a time and carried back, sometimes from several meters away. The result is a low mound with a tunnel underneath, and a pair may work on the same one for a long period, adding to it and repairing what current and storms take off.

The mound is not only theirs. A pile of stable rubble on open sand is rare and valuable, and gobies, shrimps, brittle stars and small crabs move into the structure, so one fish's construction ends up housing a small community. Animals that build things other species use are called ecosystem engineers, and on a sand flat, where nothing else provides structure at all, the effect is out of proportion to the animal.

Above ground it is a slim pale fish hovering a hand's width off the bottom, usually in pairs, feeding on small animals in the water and dropping straight down the hole when anything approaches.

The dark streak in the middle of the tail is what it is named for.

## Also known as

- **English:** quakerfish, Flagtail Blanquillo, Banded Blanquillo
- **French:** Poisson couvreur à rostre court, Poisson-couvreur à rostre court, Matajuel nez-court
- **German:** Gestreifter Torpedobarsch
- **Spanish:** blanquillo bandera
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-torpedo-de-cauda-marcada
- **Czech:** štíhlice krátkorypá
- **Japanese:** ヤセアマダイ, Yaseamadai
- **Chinese:** 短吻弱棘魚, 短吻弱棘鱼, 短吻軟棘魚
- **Russian:** Короткорылый малакант
- **AF:** Streepstert-teëlvis
- **DA:** Halestribet teglfisk
- **TAH:** 'ava'ava

## Scientific synonyms

- *Dikellorhynchus incredibilis* Smith, 1956
- *Malacanthus hoedti* Bleeker, 1859
- *Malacanthus hoedtii* Bleeker, 1859
- *Malacanthus parvipinnis* Vaillant & Sauvage, 1875

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/tilefishes/flagtail-sandtilefish)*
*Updated: August 23, 2026*