English Name: Black side hawkfish
Family: CIRRHTIDAE
Local Name: Thijjehi gaahoa
Order: Perciformes
Size: Common to 14 cm: max. 22.5 cm
Specimen: MRS/0I 10/87
Distinctive Characters: Dorsal fin with 10 spines and 11 rays. Anal tin with 3 spines and 6 rays. Pectoral fin rays 14 (uppermost and lower 7 rays unhranched). Body depth 2.6-2.9 in standard length. Palatine teeth absent. Interorhital space and almost all of snout scaly. A single cirrus from membrane near tip of each dorsal spine. 5 or 6 rows of scales on cheek.
Colour: Body yellowish with a broad blackish stripe on upper side (faint on some individuals, broken into large spots on others: often restricted to rear half of hod). Head and front of body with numerous small dark reddish spots. Occasional individuals dark brown with orange-red spots anteriorly.
Habitat and Biology: Generally lound on reef edge. often seen resting on live coral. Feeds heavily on small fishes. occasionally on crustaceans.
Distribution: Indo-Pacific.
Remarks: is a conimun hawkfish in the Maldivian reefs. It is otten seen ‘‘sitting” on
the outer most branches of Pocillopora or Acropora coral heads.