A cardinalfish of soft bottoms rather than coral: pale brown crossed by two broad dark bars, with a dark blotch below the second dorsal fin, reaching about 9 cm (3.5 in). The pattern varies with mood and background and can fade almost to nothing on a pale sand flat.
It keeps to silty sand, seagrass and sheltered rubble, often in the kind of murky bay divers pass over on the way somewhere else, and hunts small crustaceans after dark. Males mouthbrood, as in the rest of the family. Because the species tolerates poor visibility and low-energy water, it turns up in harbours and lagoons where reef fishes do not, which makes it a useful indicator of what a sheltered bottom can support.
How to recognise it
- two broad dark bars across a pale brown body
- dark blotch below the second dorsal fin
- on silty bottoms rather than on coral
- length up to 9 cm
