Short dragonfish

About this species

The little dragonfish or short dragonfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Pegasidae. It is widespread throughout the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, including the Red Sea.

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

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 50 records
February: 42 records
March: 65 records
April: 65 records
May: 69 records
June: 59 records
July: 40 records
August: 51 records
September: 68 records
October: 64 records
November: 56 records
December: 62 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 19–73 m · Deepest record: 425 m

0–10 m: 1 records
10–20 m: 5 records
20–30 m: 3 records
30–40 m: 7 records
40–50 m: 7 records
50–60 m: 14 records
60–70 m: 9 records
70–80 m: 6 records
80–90 m: 2 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–29 °C

18–20 °C: 1 records
20–22 °C: 12 records
22–24 °C: 3 records
24–26 °C: 21 records
26–28 °C: 76 records
28–30 °C: 12 records

Photos

(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Kai Squires · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Vsevolod Rudyi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Pierre Pericard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Short dragonfish, Common Seamoth, Dragon Sea Moth, Dwarf Seamoth, Little Dragonfish, seamoth, short dragonfish, Short Dragon-fish, Short Seamoth

Names in 6 more languages

German: Seemotte
Spanish: Pez pegaso
French: Dragon de mer, Pégase, Petit dragon, Poisson-pégase
Japanese: Umitengu, ウミテング
Thai: ปลาผีเสื้อกลางคืนสั้น
Simplified Chinese: 宽海蛾鱼, 寬海蛾魚, 寬海蛾魚(龍海蛾魚), 海蛾魚, 龍海蛾魚, 龙海蛾鱼

Other scientific names: Cataphractus draco, Europegasus draconis, Pegassus draco, Pegasus draco, Pegasus draconis, Pegasus latirostris, Pegasus pauciradiatus, Pegasus umitengu, Surypegasus draconis, Zalises draconis, Zalises umitengu

Similar species

Longtail seamouth
Pegasus volitans

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).
366 open-data records from 1766 to 2017.
Species data updated October 30, 2026.