Spotted hawkfish
(Cirrhitichthys aprinus)

The spotted hawkfish has a body in which the standard length is around two and a half times its depth. They have a strongly serrated preoperculum and a body which is covered in cycloid scales.

The dorsal fin has 10 spines and 12 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 6 soft rays. The dorsal spines are tipped with short white filaments. The lower 7 pectoral fin rays are robust and unbranched. The pelvic fins extend past the anus and the caudal fin is weakly emarginate.

This species attains a maximum total length of 12.5 cm (4.9 in).

The overall background colour of this species is whitish with wide dark reddish-brown vertical bars on the flanks. These are broken by light bars containing rhombus-shaped dark patches where they cross the lateral line. There is a pale-margined dark circular spot on the upper edge of the operculum and each eye has 3-4 dark bars radiating outwards from it. The caudal fin is translucent and unmarked.

The spotted hawkfish is found from Sumatra eastwards to the Solomon Islands, north to the Philippines and the Ogasawara and Ryukyu islands of southern Japan and south to the eastern and western coasts of Australia.

In Australia they occur from Houtman Abrolhos Islands off Western Australia to the Timor Sea east of the Margaret Harries Bank, north of Melville Island in the Northern Territory. They then occur off the eastern coast from the northern Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to Jervis Bay and maybe as far south to Merimbula, New South Wales. It is also found at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea, and Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.

There have been isolated records from the western Indian Ocean, these include reports from Aliwal Shoal off South Africa and the Maldives.

This is a common species inhabiting rocky and coral areas of coastal reefs below the low tide mark and which will also move into shallow harbours and estuaries. It is found at depths between 5 and 40 m (16 and 131 ft).