A dark head, an orange body and a bright red tail it flares when cornered.
To about 16 cm, with a dark blue-black head, an orange-brown body and a bright orange-red tail that is usually held folded and is opened into a fan in display and when the fish is cornered. The first dorsal spine can be locked upright.
It shelters in rubble and coral crevices, feeding on algae and small invertebrates, and reverses into a hole when pressed, wedging itself with the dorsal spine. It is common on rubble slopes at the muck destinations and is easily missed because it is small, dark and usually half inside something. The photograph worth having is of the tail spread, which takes waiting rather than crowding. Recorded from about 3 to 35 m.
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.