A small hawkfish blotched red and white, perched on rock on its stiff pectoral fins.
To 15.2 cm standard length, so a little more including the tail; most adults are nearer 10 cm. Small, stout and blunt-headed. The colour is variable: either a pale or white ground with grey to black blotches, or pink with bright red-brown blotches, scattered irregularly. The family mark is the tuft of fine filaments on the tip of each dorsal spine, and the thickened lower pectoral rays it props itself on.
The dwarf hawkfish is the confusion and the pattern separates them: that species has its red blotches merged into regular vertical bars and chevrons, where this one has irregular scattered blotches that do not line up. The longnose hawkfish has a long tubular snout and a red grid pattern and looks nothing like it.
It perches motionless on coral, gorgonian, sponge or rock, propped on its stiff pectoral rays, makes a short darting attack on a passing small fish or shrimp, and returns to the same perch. It does not swim in open water. It is approachable and holds position, which makes it a good photographic subject. It lives between 1 and 40 m and is usually between 10 and 25 m. It is common at Revillagigedo, and it is one of the few reef fishes found both across the Indo-Pacific and in the tropical eastern Pacific.
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.