CARDINALFISH

The story goes like this. A fishing boat was travelling up the Lembeh Straits towards the port of Bitung. The vessel was said to be carrying a cargo of tropical fish bound for outside Indonesia. Just north of Bitung is the Police Pier. This almost hidden jetty is the base for the region’s marine patrol squad who watch for any sort of illegal activities.

When the gentlemen of the forces heard a rumour that the ship was carrying a less-than-legal cargo, they signalled her to pull into the pier. But by the time they boarded the cargo was gone.

The Captain decided to dump everything into the water but dropped himself right into trouble! His freight was Banggai Cardinalfish and what he hadn’t realised was that these tiny fish are actually indigenous to just the Banggai Islands. So it was off to jail for the Captain and his crew!

The Banggais are adaptable creatures though and now live happliy where they were dumped. Part of a very large group of small fish, cardinals rarely reaches over seven cm long. They tend to be homebodies, picking a nice looking patch then sticking to it. They seem to be happiest hanging around sea anemones but are not affected by the stinging cells in the anemone’s tentacles.

Another curiosity is that many cardinals seem to like spiky spaces or anywhere that allows them to flit in and about branching structures like crinoids or coral finger. Banggais will hang around in Diadema sea urchins but the most impressive association is of tubed siphon cardinals sheltering in the spines of deadly fire urchins The poison that these harbour is toxic enough to kill any attacker outright and has even been known to kill an unwary human.

Cardinals also have a unique reproductive mode. This fish orally broods its young, which never enter a planktonic stage and they are part of a very small and elite group that do so. Jawfish are another.

Left top: Pterapogon kauderni - Banggai cardinalfish
Below: Sphaeramia nematoptera - Pyjama cardinalfish

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