Longnose Hawkfish

Oxycirrhites typus

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Cirrhitidae
Genus: Oxycirrhites
Species: Oxycirrhites typus

The longnose hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus) is an elegant hawkfish with a long snout and a red-checkered pattern, almost always found perched in sea fans or black corals. Its crisscross markings blend perfectly with the mesh of a gorgonian.

It grows to about 13 cm and usually lives at depths of 10-30 m or more, on steep slopes and walls exposed to current. It snaps up small crustaceans and plankton drifting past its perch, using its long snout like tweezers.

The longnose hawkfish occurs across the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific, including the Philippines, where it is a favourite subject for photographers on walls and sea fan-covered slopes.

Photo: Dan Schofield, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist