A broad-headed, barbelled ambush fish that wedges itself into holes and under debris.
A toadfish to about 30 cm, mottled brown and cream with several broad dark bars across the back and a pattern that continues onto the fins. The head is wide and flattened, the mouth takes up most of its width, and short fleshy barbels and skin flaps fringe the jaw and the edges of the head. The eyes are set high and forward. In a hole, with only the front of the head showing, the fish is easily taken for a frogfish or a scorpionfish, and the wide straight mouth line and the barbels are what settle it.
It occupies gaps under rubble slabs, holes in dead coral, the interiors of pipes and tyres, and hollow debris on sheltered bottoms, sitting well back with the head at the opening. It does not leave the shelter by day. Feeding is by ambush, the mouth opening on anything small that passes the entrance. The family produces sound with the swim bladder, and grunts are sometimes audible near a resident fish.
Males guard the eggs, which are large and are attached inside the shelter. Recorded in shallow water in Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea and northern Australia. Sightings depend almost entirely on a guide knowing which pieces of debris on a stretch of bottom are occupied.
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.