Fishes - Australian Museum Fish Site

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Ornate Hawkfish
Paracirrhites hemistictus (Günther, 1874)

Ornate Hawkfish
An Ornate Hawkfish at a depth of 5m, Mantis Reef outside wall, Wreck Bay, Great Barrier Reef, November 2001. View larger image.

The Ornate Hawkfish has two different colour forms. The pale form (see image) has black spots on the top half of the body, a pinkish face and a white stripe along the side of the body.

The dark phase is grey with dark brown spots on the body. It has a single white or pinkish spot, about the size of the eye, on the side of the body.

This species grows to 29cm in length.

The Ornate Hawkfish is usually found on coral reefs at depths from 1m to 20m.

It is often seen perched on its elongated pectoral fin rays on coral branches, sea fans (gorgonians) or rocks.

The Ornate Hawkfish feeds on small fishes and crustaceans.

Males maintain a harem of up to four females.

This fish occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West and Central Pacific, from the Cocos-Keeling Islands, north to Japan, south to Australia and east to the Pitcairn Islands.

In Australia the Ornate Hawkfish is known from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

Further reading

  1. Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 220.
  2. Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 222.
  3. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 415.
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