Two false eyes on the rear dorsal fin and a pair of long barbels off the jaw.
A small lionfish to about 13 cm, red-brown and cream, with webbed fan-shaped pectorals like the other Dendrochirus and two features that belong to no other lionfish in the region: a pair of dark ocelli ringed in pale gold on the soft dorsal fin, and a long fleshy barbel projecting from each side of the upper jaw. The barbels are the source of the other name in circulation.
Strongly cryptic and nocturnal, which is why a common fish is seldom seen. It spends the day pressed into the back of a ledge, a small cave or a gap in rubble, frequently upside down against the roof, and comes out to hunt shrimps in the open only well after dark. Recorded from about 3 to 40 m. On a day dive it is a torch pointed into holes; on a night dive it is out in the open and unbothered. Venomous dorsal spines, as in the whole family, and a fish that will hold position rather than move away from a camera.
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.
