Myripristis murdjan
Big red eyes and a crimson body under overhangs across South Sinai and the Red Sea, mostly seen at 24-29C on year-round tropical reefs.
Deep-bodied and red all over, with the outsized dark eye that gives this fish its name taking up a noticeable chunk of the head. Reaches around 42cm, though most divers see smaller individuals clustered in the shade of ledges and crevices. Look for the faint pale edge on the gill cover and the spiny dorsal fin held low against the back when it is hovering rather than swimming hard.
Spends daylight hours tucked under overhangs, in cave mouths and along shaded reef crevices, often in loose groups with other soldierfish and squirrelfish. Fairly unbothered by divers as long as you keep a bit of distance and don't shine a light straight into the group. Becomes more active at dusk and after dark, when it moves out over the reef to feed.
That oversized eye is built for low light: this is a nocturnal hunter that spends the day resting in shadow and only really gets moving once the sun goes down.
No clear seasonal pattern in the sighting data, and its comfort range of roughly 24.7 to 29C covers tropical reefs year-round, so any month works at most of these sites.
Most reliably logged in Egypt, especially South Sinai, the Red Sea Riviera and Marsa Alam in the Deep South, where it turns up at reef ledges and cave mouths in strong numbers. Also a solid find in Aqaba, Jordan and Eilat, Israel at the northern end of the Red Sea, with further populations in the Maldives' Southern Atolls, on reefs in New South Wales, Australia, and off KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Mapping where Blotcheye Soldierfish is logged…
Egypt is the standout, with South Sinai, the Red Sea Riviera and Marsa Alam all producing frequent sightings under reef ledges. Aqaba in Jordan, Eilat in Israel, the Maldives' Southern Atolls, and reefs off New South Wales and KwaZulu-Natal also hold populations.
There's no strong seasonal pattern in the sightings, and its preferred water temperature of about 24.7 to 29C is present on tropical reefs all year, so you can look for it in any month.
Look for an all-red, deep-bodied fish with a strikingly large dark eye, usually hovering in the shade of a ledge or crevice rather than out in open water. It holds its spiny dorsal fin low when resting, and tends to sit in small loose groups.
They grow to around 42cm, though the individuals divers usually spot resting under ledges are noticeably smaller than that maximum.
That huge eye is a giveaway that this is a nocturnal feeder: it shelters in dark crevices by day and only moves out to hunt once light levels drop at dusk.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Soldierfish
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