Walks on one free pectoral ray each side, which is what separates it from the devilfishes.
About fifteen species share the genus, all small — under about 15 cm — and all built the same way: a mostly scaleless body, a blunt head with a steeply rising forehead, and a set of venomous fin spines. The character that names the group is the lowest ray of each pectoral fin, detached from the rest of the fin, tipped with a small cap and used as a leg. That single free ray is the separation from Inimicus, which has two free rays on each side and a far more angular, hollowed head, and from the waspfishes, which have none at all. The inner face of the pectoral fin is often boldly marked and shows only when the fish moves. Species-level identification underwater is not realistic and records from a dive are usually left at genus.
Silt, mud and fine sand, from the shallows down past the usual limits, buried to the eyes for much of the day and walking across open sediment on the free rays at night. It is an ambush feeder on small crustaceans and fishes and does not move away from an approach, which is the whole of the hazard. Some Minous carry a hydroid, Hydractinia minoi, growing over the skin — an association that appears to be close to exclusive to this genus, and one worth a second look when a stingfish appears to be furred.
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.
