A small lionfish with dark spots on the pectoral membrane, usually deeper than its relatives.
A lionfish to about 20 cm, red-brown with narrow pale bars, the pectoral fins long and the membrane between the rays carried further out towards the tips than in the spotfin lionfish, marked over its basal part with dark spots and blotches. The dorsal spines are long and slender and most individuals carry a pair of tentacles above the eyes.
It is a rubble and soft-bottom fish, and it tends to sit deeper than the other small lionfish on the same sites, mostly below 15 m. Behaviour follows the rest of the group: it hangs low over the ground through the day, and hunts small fish and crustaceans at dusk and after dark, herding them against the bottom with the pectorals spread.
Recorded from East Africa east to Indonesia and northern Australia, here from about 10 to 50 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.
