A small short-finned lionfish of weed and rubble, banded across the pectoral fins.
The smallest of the lionfishes seen regularly on muck, to about 17 cm, dusky brown to reddish-brown with darker bars on the body and eight to ten dark bands across the pectoral fins. The pectorals are broad and webbed nearly to the tips, as in the zebra lionfish, rather than divided into separate free rays as in Pterois, but they are noticeably shorter than the zebra’s — the species name means short-finned — and the fish does not approach the zebra’s 25 cm. Filaments trail from the dorsal spines carrying black spots edged in red, and there is a short tentacle above each eye. The zebra lionfish has a pale blotch behind the head above the pectoral base and cleaner banding; this species has neither. Dwarf lionfish is applied loosely to both animals in dive literature, so the name on its own does not settle which fish is meant.
Found on weed-covered rock over sand, on reef flats and in shallow lagoons, sheltering by day in crevices and among sponges and hunting small fish and crustaceans after dark. Recorded from 1 to about 80 m across the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa to Samoa, north to the Philippines and south to Australia. Males are larger than females and hold small groups of them, and because the species has been kept and spawned in aquaria for decades its courtship — a rise off the bottom at dusk, repeated over several evenings — is described in more detail than that of most scorpionfishes.
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.
