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Comments
by David Muirhead - "To differentiate Ornates vs Shaw's in the
field the head spines (on adults at least of both sexes) tend to
point backwards on Shaw's but forwards (or as a minimum directly
upwards) on Ornates.
I have found this feature very useful in field,
especially for females where the
'base' colours are quite similar in these species.
Even with males, in my earlier diving days I seemed to get so
distracted by the stunningly beautiful tail colours/markings that
I couldn't always remember what exact species I'd seen i.e. Shaw's
vs Ornate on a dive until I got my slides developed.
This seems amazing to me now as the males are so
obviously distinct but my experience suggests others will be
encountering similar problems until they've seen lots of these
fish of both sexes"
 
Males have bright blue and yellow stripes and
spots.
Females develop ridges and spines with growth which become very
large in some females and reduce in males.
Distribution - Western Australia, South
Australia, Victoria and Tasmania
This is a somewhat deeper water species than the
ornate cowfish and appears to have a quite range in colour
variation.
22.8 cms long
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