A small red-brown scorpionfish that does the opposite of what the family is known for: instead of lying in the open pretending to be a rock, it reverses into a crevice and watches from inside it.
That is the trade this genus made. A fish sitting in the open needs perfect camouflage and pays for it with a body built for stillness; a fish inside a hole needs less disguise and keeps the option of hunting at the entrance. So these are more mobile, more common and far less noticed than their big relatives.
It comes out at night to take small crustaceans and fish across shallow rubble, and returns to the same hole before light.
Fourteen centimeters (5.5 in) and venomous like everything else in the family. It is also one of the fish most likely to be behind a sting, precisely because it lives in the holes people put their hands into.
The genus. Scorpaenodes Bleeker1857 - -oides (having the form of Scorpaena). ETYFish
- small red-brown scorpionfish with dark blotches and a pale saddle behind the head
- wedged into a hole or an undercut rather than sitting in the open
- spot on the rear of the gill cover
- length up to 14 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no known major threats towards this species.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
