The commonest cardinalfish on the reef, and the model for a blenny that bites.
To about 13 cm, silver-white with five narrow black horizontal stripes and a yellow caudal peduncle carrying a black spot at its centre. The larger tiger cardinalfish has broader, less even stripes, a much bigger mouth and no yellow at the tail. Juvenile Cheilodipterus are frequently taken for this species.
It hangs in the shade of coral heads, overhangs and long-spined urchins by day in groups of several to dozens, and disperses at night to take small crustaceans and fish. Males brood the egg mass in the mouth and can be seen rolling and aerating it, jaws slightly parted, which is one of the more reliable behaviours to photograph on a reef here. Recorded from about 1 to 40 m.
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.
