Blotcheye Soldierfish

The blotcheye soldierfish is a rounded, deep-bodied fish clad in rosy to brick-red scales, with enormous dark eyes and a dusky blotch behind the gill cover that gives it its name. Its large eyes are an adaptation to a nocturnal life, and by day it hangs in loose groups deep inside caves, under overhangs and in the shadowed recesses of KZN's coral and rocky reefs.

Divers on the northern reefs from Sodwana southward will often find them motionless in the gloom, easily approached but quick to retreat further into cover. After dark they emerge to feed on drifting zooplankton and small crustaceans. Harmless to handle, though the gill covers and fin spines are sharp, so a soldierfish is best admired in place rather than grabbed.