Coral hawkfish

About this species

The coral hawkfish, the pixy hawkfish or sharp-headed hawkfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a hawkfish belonging to the family Cirrhitidae. It is native to tropical reefs of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It occasionally is found in the aquarium trade.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Coral hawkfish”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 353 records
February: 488 records
March: 429 records
April: 714 records
May: 382 records
June: 281 records
July: 250 records
August: 232 records
September: 160 records
October: 243 records
November: 219 records
December: 283 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 4–22 m · Deepest record: 104 m

0–10 m: 360 records
10–20 m: 528 records
20–30 m: 181 records
30–40 m: 8 records
40–50 m: 2 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 1 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C

22–24 °C: 8 records
24–26 °C: 74 records
26–28 °C: 152 records
28–30 °C: 152 records

Photos

(c) Bill Levine, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) mark-groeneveld, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Pierre Pericard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Coral hawkfish, Pixy hawkfish, coral hawkfish, pixy hawkfish, Pixy Hawkfish, Coral hawkfish, Sharp-headed Hawkfish, Spotted Hawkfish

Names in 6 more languages

German: Gefleckter Korallenwächter
Spanish: halcón de coral
French: Épervier à Points Rouges, Épervier Farfadet, Épervier Lutin, Épervier lutin, Épervier à points rouges, Poisson-épervier Taché, Poisson-faucon lutin
Japanese: Himegombe, Minamigonbe, ヒメゴンベ
Thai: ปลาปากเหยี่ยวลายดวง
Simplified Chinese: 尖頭金䱵

Other scientific names: Cirrhites grandimaculatus, Cirrhites murrayi, Cirrhites oxycephalus, Cirrhitichthys corallicola, Cirrhitychthys oxycephalus, Cirritichthys oxycephalus

Similar species

Spotted hawkfish
Cirrhitichthys aprinus
Dwarf hawkfish
Cirrhitichthys falco
Arc-eye hawkfish
Paracirrhites arcatus
Blackside hawkfish
Paracirrhites forsteri
Twinspot Hawkfish
Amblycirrhitus bimacula
Stocky hawkfish
Cirrhitus pinnulatus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
3,247 open-data records from 1906 to 2024.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.