Urchin Cardinalfish, Siphamia tubifer (Weber 1909)

Other Names: Sea-urchin Cardinalfish, Tubifer Cardinalfish, Urchin Cardinal

Urchin Cardinalfish, Siphamia tubifer, near an urchin on the lagoon slope at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. Source: Jeanette Johnson / FishBase. License: CC BY Attribution-Noncommercial

Summary:

Previously referred to as Siphamia versicolor in most references prior to the revision of the genus Siphamia by Gon & Allen, 2012.

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2018, Siphamia tubifer in Fishes of Australia, accessed 09 Aug 2022, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/4236

Urchin Cardinalfish, Siphamia tubifer (Weber 1909)

More Info

Distribution	Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia, around the tropical north to east of Pottsville, New South Wales; also Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean. Elsewhere the species occurs in the Indo-west Pacific During the day, small to large schools usually shelter among the spines of the longspine sea urchin, Diadema setosum, or the banded sea urchin, Echinothrix calamaris.
Biology	Like other cardinalfishes, the Urchin Cardinalfish is a paternal mouth brooder. The male parent orally broods his fertilized clutch of eggs, releasing pre-flexion larvae into the plankton. The species has an abdominal light organ with symbiotic bioluminescent bacteria that is connected to the intestine by a duct. The light organ develops in larvae after they are released into the plankton and remains free of bacteria for at least 7 days following their release. The bacteria in the light organ emit light as an even glow over the ventral surface, enabling the Urchin Cardinalfish to forage at night.
Author	Bray, D.J. 2018
Resources	Australian Faunal Directory

Urchin Cardinalfish, Siphamia tubifer (Weber 1909)

References

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 (as Siphamia majimai)

Dunlap, P.V. & Nakamura, M. 2011. Functional morphology of the luminescence system of Siphamia versicolor (Perciformes: Apogonidae), a bacterially luminous coral reef fish. Journal of Morphology 272: 897–909. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.10956 Open access (as Siphamia versicolor)

Dunlap, P.V., Kojima, Y., Nakamura, S. & Nakamura, M. 2009. Inception of formation and early morphogenesis of the bacterial light organ of the sea urchin cardinalfish, Siphamia versicolor (Perciformes, Apogonidae). Marine Biology 156(10): 2011–2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1232-z (as Siphamia versicolor)

Dunlap, P.V., Gould, A.L., Wittenrich, M.L. & Nakamura, M. 2012. Symbiosis initiation in the bacterially luminous sea urchin cardinalfish Siphamia versicolor. Journal of Fish Biology 81: 1340–1356. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2012.03415. (as Siphamia versicolor)

Gon, O. & Allen, G.R. 2012. Revision of the Indo-Pacific cardinalfish genus Siphamia (Perciformes: Apogonidae). Zootaxa 3294: 1-84.

Gould, A.L., Harii, S. & Dunlap, P.V. 2014. Host preference, site fidelity, and homing behavior of the symbiotically luminous cardinalfish, Siphamia tubifer (Perciformes: Apogonidae). Marine Biology 161: 2897–2907. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2554-z

Kuiter, R.H. 1992. Tropical Reef-Fishes of the Western Pacific, Indonesia and Adjacent Waters. Jakarta : PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama 314 pp. pls. (as Siphamia versicolor)

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. (as Siphamia versicolor)

Leis, J.M. & Bullock, S. 1986. The luminous cardinalfish Siphamia (Pisces, Apogonidae): development of larvae and the luminous organ. In: Uyeno, T., Arai, R., Taniuchi, T., & Matsuura, K. (eds). Indo Pacific Fish Biology: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Indo-Pacific Fishes, Ichthyological Society of Japan, pp. 703–714. (as Siphamia versicolor)

Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & Steene, R. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Bathurst : Crawford House Press 557 pp. figs. (as Siphamia versicolor)

Smith, H.M. & Radcliffe, L. in Radcliffe, L. 1911. Notes on some fishes of the genus Amia, family of Cheilodipteridae, with descriptions of four new species from the Philippine Islands. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 41(1853): 245-261 figs 1-3 pls 20-25 (as Amia versicolor)

Tamura, R. 1982. Experimental observations on the association between the cardinalfish (Siphamia versicolor) and the sea urchin (Diadema setosum). Galaxea 1: 1–10.

Tominaga, Y. 1964. Notes on the fishes of the genus Siphamia (Apogonidae), with a record of S. versicolor from the Ryukyu Islands. Japanese journal of Ichthyology 12: 10–17.

Weber, M. 1909. Note IV. Diagnosen neuer Fische der Siboga-Expedition. Notes from the Leyden Museum 31(2): 143-169