''Apogonichthyoides pharaonis'', the Pharaoh cardinalfish, is a species of cardinalfish from the family

Apogonidae Cardinalfishes are a family, Apogonidae, of ray-finned fishes found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans; they are chiefly marine, but some species are found in brackish water and a few (notably ''Glossamia'') are found in fresh water. A h ...

which is found the western

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

and

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

. It is one of a group of species which have colonised the eastern Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal, a process known as Lessepsian migration.

Description

''Apogonichthyoides pharaonis'' has an oblong, compressed body up to 10 cm in length but more commonly 4–6 cm, with two distinct

dorsal fins A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

. The first two spines in the first dorsal fin are very short, the third spine is the longest and there is a single spine on the second dorsal fin and 8–9 soft rays. The

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

lies directly beneath the second dorsal fin and has 2 spines and 7-8 soft rays and the

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

is truncated. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

, which has1 spine and 5 soft rays starts beneath the base of the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s each of which has 15-16 soft rays. The large mouth is oblique and has jaws, pataltne and vomer which bear villiform teeth. The eye is large and has a diameter which is greater than the distance between the eye and the snout. The

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

has a smooth ridge and saw-like margin. There is a spine which projects from the operculum in line with the central point of the eye. There are three vertical black bars which contrast with the grey-brown ground colour of the body, there is one bar running down from each dorsal fin and the last bar is on the caudal peduncle. There is a characteristic black ‘eye-spot’ surrounded by a yellow ring within the first bar. The first dorsal fin has a dark leading edge while that of the pelvic fins is white.Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea (Apogonichthyoides pharaonis). 2nd Edition. 2021. 366p. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco.https://ciesm.org/atlas/fishes_2nd_edition/Apogonichthyoides_pharaonis.pdf

Distribution

''Apogonichthyoides pharaonis'' is native to the western

from the

and eastern African coasts to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was first recorded in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

in the 1940s off

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

but it was misidentified as Apogon taeniatus. It has since been recorded in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

(Greece),

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

up to

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

n waters.

Biology

''Apogonichthyoides pharaonis'' is a nocturnal species which hides in caves and crevices or among beds of seagrass at depths of 1–50 m during the day. At night it emerges and feeds on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

. Like other cardinalfish it is a

mouth brooder Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a va ...

, the males incubate the eggs in their mouths until the fry can swim free.

Taxonomy

''Apogonichthyoides pharaonis'' was first formally described as ''Agopogon pharaonis'' in 1874 by the Italian

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

with its type locality given as Suez. ''Apogonichthyoides pharaonis'' was previously considered to be a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''

Apogonichthyoides nigripinnis ''Apogonichthyoides'' is a genus of fish in the family Apogonidae, the cardinalfishes. They are native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. This genus was separated from ''Apogon'' in 2010. These species are light brown to brownish ...

'' but it is now regarded as a separate species with ''A. nigripinnis'' being found in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q971138 Fish described in 1874 Apogoninae