A small fish that hovers a hand's width above rubble with a single greatly elongated dorsal spine raised like a flag, flicking it in a steady rhythm. The body shades from pale grey at the head through orange to deep red at the tail, and adults reach about 8 cm (3 in).
It keeps to the foot of deep slopes, typically below 25 m (80 ft), which puts it at the edge of recreational range and explains why it is far less familiar than the shallower firefish. Pairs hold station side by side, picking plankton from the current, and both drop into a rubble hole at the first sign of a shadow - the flag goes down and the fish is simply gone. The species was separated from the widespread fire dartfish only in 2013, on colour and fin proportions, with the populations of this sea and the western 🌊 Indian Ocean belonging to it. Older photographs from this coast are therefore filed under the wrong name.
- very tall first dorsal spine held up like a flag
- pale head shading to orange-red at the tail
- hovers just above the bottom, facing into the current
- length up to 8 cm
