A silvery Galapagos cardinalfish with a black-tipped first dorsal fin, in groups under ledges by day.
To about 13 cm, though one source gives 9. A large head and a short snout with rough scales, uniform dusky brownish-red with yellow-orange on the belly and lower head, a prominent black blotch on the outer half of the second dorsal fin, and black tips to the tail lobes.
Those black fin marks separate it from the other eastern Pacific Apogon, which is plain-bodied with a tail-base spot instead.
Three to fifty metres on rocky reef and slopes, hanging under ledge overhangs and shaded rock by day and feeding in the open at night. It is a paired mouthbrooder.
It occurs only at Cocos, Malpelo and the Galapagos.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
