A red cross-hatched fish that sits in a gorgonian and will not leave it.
To about 13 cm, white with a lattice of red horizontal and vertical lines, and a long straight snout about a quarter of the body length. Hawkfishes have no swim bladder and rest on the substrate propped on thickened lower pectoral rays; this species rests among the branches of gorgonian sea fans and black coral rather than on rock.
It ambushes small crustaceans and larval fish drifting past, and stays within one or two fan colonies for long periods, so an individual can be relocated dive after dive. It works round to the far side of the fan as a diver approaches, which is the main difficulty in photographing it. It is generally a deeper-water fish here, below about 15 m and often below 25 m. Recorded to about 60 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.