Red with a very large eye, hanging under ledges by day. It can go pale or blotched within seconds.
To about 50 cm. Deep, compressed and oval, red to silvery with reddish barring, an upturned mouth with a projecting lower jaw, a very large eye and a dark blotch at the base of the pelvic fin.
The glasseye snapper is the pair to separate it from and the tail does it: slightly concave here, rounded there. This fish also lacks the oval dark specks that the glasseye carries on its soft dorsal, anal and tail fins.
Ten to two hundred metres, usually fifteen to a hundred, over coral reef and rocky bottom. It is nocturnal, forming small groups near the bottom by day and feeding at night on small fish, crustaceans and worms.
Ciguatera is reported.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.