Almost transparent with fine dark freckles, in small groups inside sponges and under rubble by day.
To about 9 cm. Translucent pinkish, finely and irregularly freckled with enlarged pigment cells forming large stellate or squarish spots, usually more than one to a scale below the lateral line, and a vertically elongate blackish blotch at the base of the tail.
That spot count is what separates it from its congener, which has star-shaped spots usually one to a scale. It is a marginal character at diving distance and this entry says so rather than presenting it as a field mark.
Nought to twenty-two metres on shallow rock and coral, and abundant where elkhorn coral stands. It retreats into the coral and rock by day. It is a mouthbrooder with a buccal pouch and pairs during courtship.
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.
