Changes its pattern to match the bottom in seconds, and the male's pectoral fin stands straight up.
A left-eyed flounder to about 42 cm, the upper side pale grey to sandy brown scattered with pale blue rings and rosettes and a variable number of dark blotches, the underside white. Both eyes lie on the left side of the head and are mounted on short stalks that move independently. Males have a greatly elongated pectoral fin on the eyed side which is raised vertically like a flag in display and territorial disputes. Two English names circulate — peacock flounder and flowery flounder — and the first is also used for the unrelated Atlantic Bothus lunatus. The look-alike to be aware of on black sand is Bothus pantherinus, which is commoner on silt, lacks the blue rings and carries a single large dark blotch on the lateral line; a good proportion of photographs captioned peacock flounder in Indonesia are that species.
Lies on the bottom with a thin covering of sand over the body, changing its pattern to match the substrate within a few seconds of settling on a new one. Feeds on small fish and crustaceans taken with a short lunge. Recorded from the shallows to about 80 m, most often on clean sand and rubble adjacent to reef rather than on the finest silt. Approach is straightforward until the fish decides otherwise, at which point it swims a few metres, settles, and vanishes again.
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.