Banggai Cardinalfish

Pterapogon kauderni

The Banggai Cardinalfish is a small tropical fish that is becoming very rare in the wild, even though it has been successfully bred in captivity.

You will only find these small, 3in long fish around the Banggai Islands of Indonesia. They are the only members of their genus, and you can tell them apart from other Cardinalfish by their three-striped bodies, tasseled first dorsal fin, long second dorsal, and their deep-forked tail fins.

Banggai Cardinalfish are diurnal and live in small groups of about a dozen members. They are opportunistic feeders who dine on whatever smaller plants and animals they can find.

Courtship and mating is pretty interesting for these guys-- females are the ones who initiate. They isolate a male and the pair will perform various courtship rituals before spawning. The Cardinalfish are mouthbrooders, which means that the males take the fertilized eggs (up to 90 of them) into their mouths and incubate them for up to 30 days. During that time they do not feed. The female will stay near the male and defend the territory for the first few days, but she eventually leaves.

Banggai Cardinalfish are very popular in the aquarium industry. They breed in captivity, but more than half a million fish are still captured from the wild each year. The small range and high rate of collection has led the species to an "Endangered" listing.

---

IUCN Status : Endangered
Location : Indonesia
Size : Length around3in (8cm)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Actinopterygii -- Order : Perciformes
Family : Apogonidae -- Genus : Pterapogon -- Species : P. kauderni

Image : Jens Petersen