Bullrout
Notesthes robusta
Cockatoo Waspfish
Ablabys taenianotus
About
The cockatoo waspfish is a small, strange-looking ambush hunter that disguises itself as a dead leaf. Reaching about 15 cm, it is easy to swim past without ever noticing it.
Also known as: cockatoo fish, leaf fish, cockatoo leaf-fish, roque fish, rouge fish
- Length
- 15 cm
- Depth
- up to 78 m
How to tell it apart
It is easily mistaken for a dead leaf or piece of drifting debris because of its shape and colour. Look for the raised, crest-like dorsal fin running the length of the back — no true leaf or seaweed fragment holds this shape.
Appearance
The body is flattened side to side, with a dorsal fin that runs from the top of the head almost to the tail. When raised, this fin fans out like a cockatoo's crest, and its spines carry venom. Colour ranges from cream to dark brown, finely flecked and marked with irregular spots, often with an abruptly white snout and forehead.
Habitat
This waspfish lives on sandy, silty, or rubble bottoms and in seagrass beds across the tropical western Pacific, from very shallow water down to 78 m.
Behaviour
The cockatoo waspfish is a nocturnal, bottom-dwelling ambush predator, usually seen alone or in pairs. It mimics a crumpled dead leaf or drifting piece of seaweed, letting itself be pushed along by the water, and strikes at small shrimp and other tiny crustaceans that come within reach of its mouth.
Did you know?
To complete its disguise as a drifting dead leaf, the cockatoo waspfish rocks gently back and forth on the seabed whenever surge moves the water around it.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
