Photo copyright Capt. Victor Organ.
Taken in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea.
Forster's Hawkfish, Paracirrhites forsteri, perched on Acropora.

This fish is easy for the diver to spot as it rests motionless on coral. It is carnivorous, ambushing crustaceans and small fish. A member of the Cirrhitidae family, it can change sex. Young fish are all female. One male has a harem of females - if the male dies one of the females changes sex to take its place. Males are very territorial.

Forster's Hawkfish grows up to 23 cm and has variable colouring. The freckles, however, are always present. It lives from 1 to 33 m.

For more information on diving Saudi Arabia see our Red Sea section.

Further Reading
Coral Reef Fishes, Indo-Pacific and Caribbean , by Ewald Lieske and Robert Myers, Harper Collins
The Red Sea, by Andrea Ghisotti, Bonechi
The Red Sea in Egypt Part I Fishes, by Farid S Atiya, ISBN 977-00-0443-X