Nine centimeters (3.5 in) of scorpionfish on open rubble, banded across the pectoral fins and otherwise indistinguishable from the bottom it is sitting on.
At this size the animal is prey as much as predator, and everything about it is aimed at not being identified: skin flaps that break every straight line, a color that shifts to match the substrate over days, and total stillness. A fish this small cannot afford to be found by a grouper.
It hunts at night, taking shrimps, amphipods and fish larvae with a strike that is over in milliseconds - the same mechanism as its 40 cm relatives, scaled down.
The spines carry the same venom. The sting from a fish this size is painful rather than dangerous, but it is delivered from a rock that a hand came down on, which is how almost all of them happen.
The genus. Scorpaenopsis Heckel 1837 - opsis (appearance). ETYFish
The species. Scorpaenopsis vittapinna Randall & Eschmeyer 2002 - vitta (band) + pinna (fin). ETYFish
- very small scorpionfish, mottled brown with banded pectoral fins
- skin flaps over the eyes and along the jaw
- sits openly on rubble, relying entirely on not being recognized
- length up to 9 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known major threats towards this species.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
