A large-eyed sweeper that packs into caves and under ledges by day and feeds in open water at night.
To about 15 cm. Deep, strongly compressed and wedge-shaped with a very large eye and an oblique mouth, pale grey above with yellow sides, and black tips to the dorsal and tail fins with a dark margin to the anal fin.
Those black fin tips are the separator from the true bigscale bullseye, which reaches 28 cm and carries brown stripes along the scale rows.
On coastal rocky reef, in caves and under ledges by day, often in groups, moving out to feed at night. Recorded beyond thirty metres.
A name flag on this entry. The Australian Museum gives Pempheris affinis as the blacktip bullseye and applies “bigscale bullseye” to Pempheris multiradiata. The common name on this page is being used for the wrong species and needs Simon’s decision on which fish the entry is meant to be about.
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.