What Cardinalfish is this?
- Thread starter jeremyg
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They are definitely in the Cheilodipterus genus. As for species it's hard to say. They look a lot like Cheilodipterus novemstriatus but don't have the typical yellow tailspot most species with that stripe pattern have. I'd be curious to see if a tailspot develops. I hope this helps
jeremyg
Community Member
Thanks - I'll update here if they develop the spot or they change colors (is that possible?).
They were supposed to have been Ochrestriped Cardinalfish (Ostorhinchus compressus), but don't appear to have the right coloration/markings: "ochre-red (no) with gold color (not really). The large black (yes) and blue (no) eyes are offset by a black spot (no) near the tail"
Cardinalfish are admittedly not my specialty but I have seen fish change colors, especially as they age and mature. The body shape looks like the Ochrestriped genus but the stripes look wrong for compressus like you said. It could be Ostorhinchus taeniophorus
reddevilant
Active Member
Where did you get those cardinals? I live on Long Island too 
A couple other possibilities, Sydney Cardinalfish (Apogon linus) or Striped Cardinalfish (Apogon fasciatus).
jeremyg
Community Member
Online @ LiveAquaria - first time ordering. Usually get fish from Total Aquariums, but wanted to branch out.Where did you get those cardinals? I live on Long Island too
Frankly, was a failed experiment. One DOA, 3 incorrect cardinals, and a miniature juvenile French Angel (was supposed to be 4-5" Adult). At least the Rusty Angel came as advertised. Fortunately their CS was excellent and the refunded for all of the errors/loss.
jeremyg
Community Member
@Jay Hemdal Thanks for helping identify the Gray Angelfish in a different thread. Wondering if you have any idea about these Cardinalfish?I ordered a few fish online recently and I believe we received the wrong type of Cardinalfish. They’re about 2” long.
Anyone have an idea which one these are?
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
Those look more like sunbeams or snappers. Are they acting like cardinal fish?
Grouping and swimming in one spot?
Hovering?
D
Grouping and swimming in one spot?
Hovering?
D
jeremyg
Community Member
Hmm, they do seem to stay together, often near the sandbed. They dart around during feeding time. They don’t really “hover” like my Banggai do.
Here’s a short video:
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
Ya those are a type of cardinal. Similar to the blue eyes
jeremyg
Community Member
Yah, would love to know which ones exactly
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
jeremyg
Community Member
Nah, they don’t have the spot, or the five lines. And they have those vertical lines too.
kingoftheHiLLpeople
Valuable Member
Supposed to be a ? Not a .
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
Cooks cardinal fish?
Your first pic has two different species - aside from the angelfish - in it; the ones with the horizontal stripes on the stomach and the one without them.
The one without the stripes do seem to be (as mentioned above) either Ostorhinchus taeniophorus or Ostorhinchus cookii. O. taeniophorus seems slightly more likely to me, as O. cookii typically has a more distinctive dot where the stripe ends at the center of the tail.
The ones with the stripes are very interesting. The only cardinalfish I'm aware of with vertical striping similar to that is Ostorhinchus pleuron, which seems to be the best fit. However, most specimens I can find pictures of seem to lack the stripe below the eye displayed by yours (you can see hints of this line on a few specimens, but I'm not sure if the line being clearly present as it is on your specimens indicates their being a separate species, or if it's only sometimes present as a feature, if it fades with age, if the preserved specimens had decayed enough to lose the visibility of the stripe, etc.). A similar (if not the same) issue of apparent fading seems to be present with the vertical striping as well, where some specimens display the vertical stripes quite clearly, but others seem to merely display a slightly darkened hue/tint to their scales where the striping is/was/should be/would be. I would guess these striping discrepancies are due either to age (i.e. loss of juvenile coloration/growing into adult coloration), decay of the specimen, phenotypic elasticity (i.e. variation in how specimens look despite being the same species), or to it just being a different species.
TLDR; my guess for the one without the vertical stripes is Ostorhinchus taeniophorus (though Ostorhinchus cookii also seems plausible to me), the two with the vertical stripes I would guess Ostorhinchus pleuron.
The one without the stripes do seem to be (as mentioned above) either Ostorhinchus taeniophorus or Ostorhinchus cookii. O. taeniophorus seems slightly more likely to me, as O. cookii typically has a more distinctive dot where the stripe ends at the center of the tail.
The ones with the stripes are very interesting. The only cardinalfish I'm aware of with vertical striping similar to that is Ostorhinchus pleuron, which seems to be the best fit. However, most specimens I can find pictures of seem to lack the stripe below the eye displayed by yours (you can see hints of this line on a few specimens, but I'm not sure if the line being clearly present as it is on your specimens indicates their being a separate species, or if it's only sometimes present as a feature, if it fades with age, if the preserved specimens had decayed enough to lose the visibility of the stripe, etc.). A similar (if not the same) issue of apparent fading seems to be present with the vertical striping as well, where some specimens display the vertical stripes quite clearly, but others seem to merely display a slightly darkened hue/tint to their scales where the striping is/was/should be/would be. I would guess these striping discrepancies are due either to age (i.e. loss of juvenile coloration/growing into adult coloration), decay of the specimen, phenotypic elasticity (i.e. variation in how specimens look despite being the same species), or to it just being a different species.
TLDR; my guess for the one without the vertical stripes is Ostorhinchus taeniophorus (though Ostorhinchus cookii also seems plausible to me), the two with the vertical stripes I would guess Ostorhinchus pleuron.
jeremyg
Community Member
Funny, I only noticed that difference a few hours ago when I was looking through the original pics. The one without the vertical stripes died a day or 2 into QT.
Doesn't seem to be many decent pics online to compare against, but from what I saw this is possible. I guess I'll just refer to these as Mysterioso Cardinalfish if/until their coloring changes to something more obvious.
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