A deep red fish with an enormous eye, hanging under an overhang by day and doing nothing. Come back at night and the same fish is out in open water, hunting - and possibly silver rather than red.
The color switch is fast and complete. Bigeyes can go from solid red to plain silver to a blotched combination within seconds, and they do it constantly: red vanishes as a color at depth, so a red fish in a cave is effectively black, while a silver one in open water at night is a mirror. Two different disguises for two different parts of the same day.
The eye is what the body is built around. It hunts zooplankton, small fish and crustaceans in the dark, and light-gathering is the whole game.
Thirty-six centimeters (14 in), rough-scaled enough to feel like sandpaper, and common in the right places - which are caves and wreck interiors during daylight, where a torch turns a dark corner into a wall of red fish and eyes.
The genus. Priacanthus Oken 1817 - prion (saw) + acanthus (thorn or spine). ETYFish
- deep red body that can turn silver or blotched in seconds
- very large eye, and a small upturned mouth
- rough scales - the fish feels like sandpaper
- hangs under an overhang by day, facing outward
- length up to 36 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known major threats.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
