Bugeye dottyback

The bugeye dottyback is a tiny reef fish, no more than 4.5 cm long. It is shy and stays hidden, so divers almost never see it. Most records come from scientists collecting on reef slopes rather than from sightings in the water. It is the only species in its genus.

Also known as: bug-eyed dottyback, bugeye dottyback, bugeye dottyback, bug-eyed dottyback

Body colour is useless here, since the same species turns up yellow or brown. Work from the head and tail instead, which stay the same whatever the body does. The snout keeps a pink tone with a yellow patch around the eye, and the tail fin stays yellow even on a brown fish. A plain little dottyback with a yellow tail and a pink snout is this one.

This is a small, deep-bodied fish with a rounded head. The body colour is not fixed. Some fish are an even yellow, others an even brown, with everything in between. There are no bars, stripes or spots on the body to break up that plain colour.

Look for it on coastal reef slopes, in patches of algae growing among boulders, and on inshore reefs. It is recorded between about 10 and 30 m. The range runs across the Indo-Pacific, from the eastern Indian Ocean through the islands of Southeast Asia to the western Pacific, north to southern Japan and south to northern Australia. It keeps to cover and rarely comes into the open.