Cheilodipterus artus
Wolf Cardinalfish | Arrow-tooth Cardinafish | Lined Cardinalfish
Distribution
Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Pale body colour with 8 or 9 dark stripes, juveniles only possesing 4 or 5, with the additional stripes forming between already established ones giving the intermediate phases a distinctive dark-faint stripe pattern. Yellow tail base with black spot becoming darker with age. Almost impossible to distinguish from C. intermedius in the field at small sizes, but C. intermedius retains light tail base in larger individuals.
Information
Max Size: 19 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 22.3-31.7°C
Depth: 2-20m
Habitat Generalization Index: 7.06
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Not Evaluated
Occurrence: Infrequent (9.5% of sites)
Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
Abundance: Many (13 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: RD Stuart-Smith, GJ Edgar, AJ Green, IV Shaw. 2015. Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland