Red with a dark bar behind the gill cover, packed into eastern Pacific caves and under overhangs by day.
To about 18 cm. Ovate and deep with a moderately large oblique mouth and a very large eye, red in body and fins with darker scale margins giving vague stripes along the side.
Plain red fins separate it from the bigscale soldierfish, which has an orange outer dorsal and a black opercular bar; its small size and the absence of a yellow tint separate it from the Clarion soldierfish.
One to thirty-three metres on rocky shores. It hides under conspicuous rocks and in small caves by day and forms small groups over the rock — or near the surface — at night to feed on crustaceans.
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.