A plain reddish cardinalfish of the eastern Pacific offshore islands, hanging under ledges by day.
To about 8 cm. This entry has to be brief, because the sources give no useful colour description. It is a plain, unmarked cardinalfish, and that absence of markings — no fin blotch, no side spot, no saddle across the tail base — is itself what separates it from the other eastern Pacific cardinalfish.
Nine to thirty metres on rocky reef, sheltering in rock by day and taking crustaceans, molluscs and small invertebrates. It is a paired mouthbrooder.
One flag. FishBase gives its range as San Clemente Island and the Gulf of California out to the eastern Pacific offshore islands, so it is not a Revillagigedo endemic as this site’s roster had it.
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.
