Common Name: Crimson Squirrelfish

Distribution: Common in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region: Red Sea and East Africa to Oceania. In Australia recorded from Shark Bay in Western Australia, the North West Shelf and Gulf of Carpentaria, the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, south to northern New South Wales.

Ecological Notes: Frequents reef flats and lagoons, seaward reefs, secretive in caves or overhangs. Depth to 50 m.

Additional Notes: Body reddish, scales with pale centres. Similar colouration and habitat to Myripristis kuntee, which has much smaller scales. Nocturnal, feeding on planktonic larvae at night. Grows to 27 cm. 

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.58.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Myripristis+murdjan. Accessed 08/06/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Myripristis-murdjan.html. Accessed 08/06/18.