Urchin Cardinalfish, Siphamia tubifer (Weber 1909)

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