Drifts with the current like a dead leaf and settles wherever it lands.
A small waspfish to about 13 cm, deep-bodied and strongly compressed, with a dorsal fin that begins directly above the eye and whose first spines are much the longest — the fin is carried raised, so the fish appears to have a sail. Colour is variable and unhelpful for identification, running through cream, pink, brown and near black, usually blotched. The cockatoo waspfish Ablabys taenianotus shares the sail and the habit and differs in its longer, more angled snout and in holding its body tilted further over.
Moves very little of its own accord. It lies on its side or leans against weed and rubble, rocking with the surge, and when it does travel it drifts with the current rather than swimming — behaviour usually described as leaf mimicry and consistent with how easily it is overlooked. Found on silt, in patches of weed and among rubble from about 3 to 25 m, sometimes several in a small area. Dorsal spines are venomous. Its stillness makes it an easy subject, and the usual mistake is lighting it flat rather than from the side, which loses the outline that makes the photograph.
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.
