Strawberry hind
(Cephalopholis spiloparaea)

Cephalopholis spiloparaea has a body which has a standard length is 2.6 to 3 times the depth. The dorsal fin has 9 spines and 14-16 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 9-10 soft rays. The pectoral fins are markedly longer than the pelvic fins and it has a rounded caudal fin.

There are 47-53 scales in the lateral line.

The background colour is pale reddish orange and it is marked with dark red or brownish red mottling and blotches. There are normally faint pale spots on the head, body, and dorsal, anal and caudal fins.

The caudal fin is normally the same colour as the body, although some specimens from the Comoros Islands show distinctly yellowish tails, with a bluish white submarginal band at the corners of the tail, thinning and moving to the margin at the tails centre. The margin of the soft-rayed part of the anal fin and, to s lesser extent the dorsal fin, is bluish. Sometimes here are 8 faint dark saddle blotches along the base of the dorsal fin with a ninth on the anterior of the caudal peduncle.

This species attains a maximum total length of 30 centimetres (12 in).

Cephalopholis spiloparaea has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution from the East African coats where it extends from Kenya south to Pinda in Mozambique, east across the Indian Ocean into the pacific as far east as French Polynesia and Pitcairn Island. They occur as far north as the Ryukyu Islands and south to the Rowley Shoals in Western Australia and Heron Island in the southern part of Queensland\'s Great Barrier Reef.