Amanses scopas
Small, oval-bodied filefish grazing coral in Marsa Alam and the Egyptian Red Sea, comfortable year-round in 25-29C water.
Small, oval-bodied fish around 14 cm, with a compressed, almost leaf-shaped profile and a pointed, tapering snout it uses to pick at coral. Colour is a mottled brownish-grey that lets it blend into the reef, often with faint darker blotches. Look for the single, thin retractable spine just behind the eyes and its slow, hovering swimming style with fins fluttering constantly rather than beating in strokes.
Divers typically find it hovering low over coral heads or tucked against reef structure, nibbling algae and small invertebrates with its narrow snout. It's a slow, unhurried swimmer that relies on camouflage rather than speed, often letting divers get fairly close before drifting off into cover. Most sightings are of single fish rather than groups, picked out more by patient reef-scanning than by chance encounter given how uncommon it is at most sites.
Like other filefish, it can lock itself into crevices by raising that thin dorsal spine, wedging its body in place so predators can't pull it out.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the sightings, and with a comfortable range of roughly 25 to 29C it's present on these reefs all year, so there's no need to plan a trip around a particular month.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most reliably logged in Egypt, especially around Marsa Alam and the Deep South and the Red Sea Riviera, with further sightings in South Sinai. Outside the Red Sea it turns up around Taveuni in Fiji, and in smaller numbers in Guam's Apra Harbor and Sulawesi in Indonesia.
Mapping where Broom Filefish is logged…
Egypt is the strongest region, particularly Marsa Alam and the Deep South and the Red Sea Riviera, with South Sinai also producing sightings. It's also logged around Taveuni in Fiji, Apra Harbor in Guam, and Sulawesi in Indonesia.
There's no detected season in the sighting data, and its temperature range of roughly 25 to 29C spans typical tropical reef conditions year-round, so any time of year works.
Look for a small, oval, laterally flattened fish around 14 cm with a mottled brown-grey pattern and a pointed snout. It hovers slowly near coral with fluttering fins rather than swimming in bursts, and has a thin retractable spine behind the eyes.
They typically reach around 14 cm, making them a small, easy-to-overlook reef fish best spotted with a slow, careful scan of coral structure.
No, it poses no danger to divers and will typically retreat into reef cover rather than confront anyone approaching.
They can raise a thin dorsal spine and wedge themselves into crevices, locking their body in place so predators struggle to extract them.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Whitespotted Filefish
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