Parapercis ramsayi
Small demersal sandperch spotted across New South Wales reefs in 16-23C water, year-round and often overlooked.
A slim, elongated body about 14 cm long, usually seen propped up on its pelvic fins resting on sand or rubble rather than swimming freely. Look for a pointed snout, a mottled or blotchy pale-to-tan pattern along the flanks, and the typical sandperch posture, upright and alert, ready to dart a short distance and resettle. It rarely holds still for long but doesn't flee far, making a slow approach the best way to get a good look.
Typically seen propped on sand or rubble patches adjacent to reef, using its pelvic fins like a tripod while scanning for small prey. It tends to sit still when approached slowly, then makes short low darts rather than swimming off the bottom, settling again a body length or two away. Most divers log it as an incidental find while working reef edges and sand channels rather than as a target sighting.
Like other grubfish and sandperches, it's a sit-and-wait predator that ambushes small invertebrates and tiny fish from its resting position rather than actively hunting across the reef.
There's no detected seasonal pattern, so treat it as a year-round sighting on NSW reefs. Recorded water temperatures span 16.0 to 22.6C, covering the region's cooler and warmer months alike, so timing your trip around temperature isn't necessary.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Every logged sighting so far comes from Australia, with New South Wales the clear stronghold and the only region divers reliably report it from. Within NSW it turns up across a spread of temperate reef and sand-patch sites rather than one single hotspot, so it's worth watching low sandy stretches near rocky reef on most southern NSW dives.
Mapping where Ramsay's Grubfish is logged…
It's essentially an Australian species for divers, logged almost exclusively across New South Wales dive sites on sand patches near temperate reef.
No strong season shows up in the data, so it's a year-round possibility in NSW waters, seen across the observed range of 16 to 23C.
Look for a small, slender fish around 14 cm resting on its pelvic fins on sand near reef, with a mottled pale body and a pointed face. It sits upright rather than hovering and darts short distances when disturbed.
They're a small species, typically around 14 cm long, so they're easy to miss against sand and rubble unless you're looking closely.
Sighting frequency varies by site: most divers log it as uncommon, though a good number of NSW sites report it as a common find, with only a few sites calling it rare.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Spotted Sandperch
705 sites
