Feels its way over silt with three long free pectoral rays, like a fish with whiskers.
A slender waspfish to about 18 cm, pale silver-brown above and white below, with a large dark ocellus on the rear of the first dorsal fin and three long barbels under the chin. The pectoral fins are the distinguishing feature: the lowest three rays of each are free of the fin membrane and greatly elongated, and the fish trails them along the sediment as it moves, using them as feelers. Spread, the pectorals are broad and marked with dark bands.
A soft-bottom, night-active fish that spends the day buried and comes out to work across open silt after dark, walking and probing with the free rays for buried crustaceans. When alarmed it raises the dorsal fin and spreads both pectorals, which doubles its apparent size and shows the ocellus. Recorded from about 5 to 40 m, usually deeper than the cockatoo waspfish and generally further out on the slope. A night-dive animal, and one that keeps moving, so it rewards patience over pursuit.
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.
