Bandtail Cardinal

About this species

The ring-tailed cardinalfish is a widespread fish species in the family Apogonidae found in the Red Sea and off East Africa to Papua New Guinea, north to Japan, and south to Australia.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Ring-tailed cardinalfish”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 76 records
February: 53 records
March: 84 records
April: 117 records
May: 104 records
June: 79 records
July: 70 records
August: 59 records
September: 68 records
October: 76 records
November: 90 records
December: 96 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 3–31 m · Deepest record: 58 m

0–10 m: 58 records
10–20 m: 23 records
20–30 m: 21 records
30–40 m: 8 records
40–50 m: 5 records
50–60 m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–30 °C

20–22 °C: 11 records
22–24 °C: 7 records
24–26 °C: 37 records
26–28 °C: 66 records
28–30 °C: 66 records

Photos

(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Roger Rittmaster, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Gregor Bailar, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bernard DUPONT, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Tom Heijnen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Bandtail Cardinal, golden cardinalfish, Ringtail Cardinal, Ring-tail Cardinalfish, Ringtail Cardinalfish, ringtailed cardinalfish, Ring-tailed cardinalfish, Ring-tailed Cardinal-fish

Names in 4 more languages

German: Schwarzbinden-Kardinalbarsch, Sonnen-Kardinalbarsch
French: Apogon doré
Japanese: Aosujitenjikudai, アオスジテンジクダイ
Simplified Chinese: 大目側仔, 大面側仔, 環尾天竺鯛, 環尾鸚天竺鯛, 黃鸚天竺鯛

Other scientific names: Amia aurea, Apogon aureus, Apogon roseipinnis, Centropomus aureus, Gronovichthys aureus

Similar species

Blue-lined Cardinalfish
Ostorhinchus cyanosoma
Blackbanded Soldierfish
Ostorhinchus nigrofasciatus
High-fin Cardinal
Ostorhinchus chrysotaenia
Cryptic Cardinalfish
Apogon erythrinus
Timor Cardinal
Apogonichthyoides timorensis
Obliquebanded cardinalfish
Apogon semiornatus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
646 open-data records from 1802 to 2018.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.