Marine Wildlife Encyclopedia
Ring-tailed Cardinalfish Apogon aureus
Cardinalfish are small nocturnal reef fish. The ring-tailed cardinalfish hides under corals and in crevices during the day and emerges at night to feed on plankton. It has a distinctive black band around the tail base and two blue and white lines running from the snout through the eyes. Like all of the 200 or so species of cardinalfish, it has two separate dorsal fins. The male does not feed during the breeding season. Instead, after the female has laid her eggs the male broods them in his mouth, protecting them until they hatch.
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- Order Perciformes
- Length Up to 6 in (15 cm)
- Weight Not recorded
- Depth 3–130 ft (1–40 m)
- Distribution Red Sea and tropical waters of Indian Ocean and western Pacific
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