Slender Cardinalfish, Rhabdamia gracilis (Bleeker 1856)
Other Names: Luminous Cardinalfish, Slender Cardinal, Slender Cardinal-fish
Slender Cardinalfish, Rhabdamia gracilis, at North West Solitary Island, New South Wales, 19 June 2015, depth 11 m. Source: Ian Shaw / iNaturalist. License: CC by Attribution-NonCommercial
Summary:
An almost transparent cardinalfish with a silvery head and abdomen, a black tip on one or both caudal-fin lobes, a bluish mid-lateral stripe, and a reddish patch on the gill cover behind the eye. Females larger than 4 cm SL have one or two dark stripes along the sides, which are absent in males and smaller females.
Cite this page as:
Bray, D.J. 2022, Rhabdamia gracilis in Fishes of Australia, accessed 19 Apr 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/Home/species/4231
Slender Cardinalfish, Rhabdamia gracilis (Bleeker 1856)
More Info
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Distribution |
Houtman Abrolhos Islands, and offshore reefs of north Western Australia, and Ashmore and Cartier Islands in the Timor Sea, to Sydney, New South Wales; also Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean. Elsewhere the species occurs in the tropical, Indo-west-central Pacific, from East Africa to the Marshall Islands, and north to Japan. Forms large dense schools in gutters and above the reef. |
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Features |
Dorsal fin VII, 9; Anal fin 12-13. Greatest depth of body 3.3-3.6 in SL. |
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Colour |
Translucent whitish to pinkish, head and abdomen silvery; bluish midlateral stripe; posteriorly placed black spot; sometimes on caudal peduncle; one or both caudal-fin lobes with black tip. |
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Feeding |
Feeds on plankton above the reef during the day and at night. |
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Fisheries |
Slender Cardinalfish are used as bait in commercial fisheries such as Skipjack Pole-and-line fisheries. |
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Species Citation |
Apogonichthys gracilis Bleeker 1856, Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië 10: 371. Type locality: Ternate, Moluccas, Indonesia. |
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Author |
Bray, D.J. 2022 |
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Resources |
Slender Cardinalfish, Rhabdamia gracilis (Bleeker 1856)
References
Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Perth : Western Australian Museum 292 pp. 106 pls.
Allen, G.R. & Erdmann, M.V. 2012. Reef fishes of the East Indies. Perth : Tropical Reef Research 3 vols, 1260 pp.
Allen, G.R. & Smith-Vaniz, W.F. 1994. Fishes of Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Atoll Research Bulletin 412: 1-21
Allen, G.R. & Swainston, R. 1988. The Marine Fishes of North-Western Australia. A field guide for anglers and divers. Perth, WA : Western Australian Museum vi 201 pp., 70 pls.
Blaber, S.J.M., Brewer, D.T. & Harris, A.N. 1994. Distribution, biomass and community structure of demersal fishes of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 45(3): 375-396.
Bleeker, P. 1856. Zevende bijdrage tot de kennis der ichthyologische fauna van Ternate. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië 10: 357-386
Hutchins, B. 2004. Fishes of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 66: 343–398
Hutchins, J.B. 1994. A survey of the nearshore reef fish fauna of Western Australia's west and south coasts — The Leeuwin Province. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 46: 1-66 figs 1-6
Hutchins, J.B., Williams, D.McB., Newman, S.J., Cappo, M. & Speare, P. 1995. New records of fishes for the Rowley Shoals and Scott/Seringapatam Reefs, off north-western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 17: 119-123
Kuiter, R.H. 1992. Tropical Reef-Fishes of the Western Pacific, Indonesia and Adjacent Waters. Jakarta : PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama 314 pp. pls.
Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. A comprehensive reference for divers and fishermen. Sydney, NSW, Australia : New Holland Publishers xvii, 434 pp.
Kuiter, R.H. & Kozawa, T. 2019. Cardinalfishes of the world. New edition. Seaford, Victoria : Aquatic Photographics and Okazaki, Aichi, Japan: Anthias, Nexus: 1-198.
Larson, H.K., Williams, R.S. & Hammer, M.P. 2013. An annotated checklist of the fishes of the Northern Territory, Australia. Zootaxa 3696(1): 1-293
Mabuchi, K., Fraser, T.H., Song, H., Azuma, Y. & Nishida, M. 2014. Revision of the systematics of the cardinalfishes (Percomorpha: Apogonidae) based on molecular analyses and comparative reevaluation of morphological characters. Zootaxa 3846(2): 151–203
Randall, J.E. 2005. Reef and shore fishes of the South Pacific. New Caledonia to Tahiti and the Pitcairn Islands. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press 707 pp.
Russell, B.C. 1983. Annotated checklist of the coral reef fishes in the Capricorn-Bunker group, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Special Publication Series 1: 1-184 figs 1-2
Russell, B.C. & Houston, W. 1989. Offshore fishes of the Arafura Sea. The Beagle 6(1): 69-84.
Sainsbury, K.J., Kailola, P.J. & Leyland, G.G. 1984. Continental Shelf Fishes of Northern and North-Western Australia. Canberra : Fisheries Information Service 375 pp. figs & pls.
Siddique, M.A.M., Arshad, A. & Amin, S.N.M. 2015. Length‐weight and length‐length relationships of two tropical fish Secutor megalolepis (Mochizuki & Hayashi, 1989) and Rhabdamia gracilis (Bleeker, 1856) from Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 31(3): 574-575 https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.12752
Yoshida, T., Mabuchi, K. & Motomura, H. 2018. Rhabdamia novaluna, a new species of cardinalfish (Perciformes: Apogonidae) from the western Pacific Ocean, with comments on the synonymy of Rhabdamia gracilis. Ichthyological Research 66(1): 129-139. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-018-0664-1
Yoshida, T. & Motomura, H. 2018. Redescription of the Indo-West Pacific cardinalfishes (Perciformes: Apogonidae) Rhabdamia spilota Allen & Kuiter 1994 and R. gracilis (Bleeker 1856). Zootaxa 4377(2): 178-190 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4377.2.2
