Red with a large eye and a yellow dorsal fin, under ledges by day and feeding on open sand at night.
To about 61 cm, common at 25. Dull red or pinkish, sometimes blotched, with a large eye and a long upper tail lobe.
One character separates it from the longspine squirrelfish and it is worth learning because the two are otherwise very similar: the tips of the membranes between the dorsal spines are reddish or translucent here, and carry a white spot near the margin there.
Nought to a hundred and eighty metres, usually eight to thirty. Nocturnal: wedged into deep crevices and under coral ledges by day, moving out over sand and grass beds at night for crabs and small crustaceans. It produces sound.
The preopercular spine is sharp. 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.