ENVIRONMENT

Marine; reef-associated; depth range 3 - 24 m, Tropical.

DISTRIBUTION

• Eastern Pacific: Gulf of California to Ecuador, including the Galapagos Islands. Also found in the Revillagigedo and Cocos islands.

SIZE

• Max length : 18.0 cm, common length : 12.0 cm.

MORPHOLOGY

• Dorsal spines: 11

• Dorsal soft rays: 12-15

• Anal spines: 4

• Anal soft rays: 11-13

• Vertebrae: 26

• Branchiostegal rays: 8 on each side (8-8)

• The body is ovate and deep, with a moderately large, oblique mouth.

• The snout is blunt, and the forehead is convex.

• The eyes are very large. The preopercle has no spine at the corner and features a concave edge.

• The opercle has a single short spine, while the inner ridge of the opercle and other head bones are serrated.

• There are 28-34 gill rakers.

• The dorsal fin has 11 spines and is continuous but deeply notched between the last two spines, with 13-15 soft rays. The anal fin has 4 spines, with the third spine being the stoutest, and either the third or fourth spine is the longest, followed by 11-13 soft rays.

• The tail is forked. The scales are large and very rough, with 34-40 scales along the lateral line, and 2.5 scale rows above it.

• The body is red with darker scale margins and faint stripes on the sides. The edge of the gill cover and the pectoral axil lack black pigment.

• BIOLOGY
  Adults typically hide under prominent rocks and in small caves during the day.

• At night, they form small groups on rocky and sometimes soft substrates, or near the water's surface. Their primary diet consists of crustaceans.

• They are oviparous, with larvae that are planktonic.