Buries itself in silt and does not move, which is exactly why it is dangerous.
A heavy-bodied fish to about 40 cm, the mouth set almost vertically, the eyes high on a broad head with a deep hollow between them, and the skin loose, pitted and usually carrying a growth of algae and silt. It does not resemble a fish so much as a piece of rubble. The congener Synanceia verrucosa, the reef stonefish, has no deep cheek hollow and is an animal of coral rather than sediment; the two overlap and are regularly confused.
Thirteen dorsal spines, each with a pair of venom glands, and a sting that is a genuine medical emergency rather than a bad afternoon. The animal’s defence is to stay absolutely still, so it will not move out of the way of a hand or a knee, and the practical consequence for a diver is that buoyancy and a habit of never touching the bottom matter more here than a rule about which animals to avoid. Spends the day buried with only the eyes and mouth clear, ambushes small fish at night, and is found on silt and estuarine mud from the shallows to about 30 m.
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.
