Orbiculate cardinalfish
Amazing fact
In orbiculate cardinalfish, the male carries developing eggs in his mouth.
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
In orbiculate cardinalfish, the male carries developing eggs in his mouth.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Orbiculate cardinalfish
- Scientific name
- Sphaeramia orbicularis
- Japanese name
- ホソスジマンジュウイシモチ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Kurtiformes
- Family
- Apogonidae
- Genus
- Sphaeramia
It lives in the seas from southern islands such as Amami Oshima to Taiwan and across the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.
It looks like the pajama cardinalfish, but its body is grayish and its black vertical bands are thinner.
How the Orbiculate cardinalfish lives
It forms groups in sheltered places. Pairs spawn shortly before new moons and full moons.
沖縄美ら海水族館Museums VictoriaBasic data
- Range
- Amami Oshima, Kerama Islands, Iriomote Island, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indo-West Pacific, Tonga Islands, and elsewhere
Where the Orbiculate cardinalfish has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 简体中文
- 斑带天竺鲷
- 繁體中文
- 環紋圓天竺鯛
- Français
- Apogon orbiculaire
- Deutsch
- Gürtel-Kardinalbarsch
- Português (Brasil)
- Cardeal-orbicular
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Serinding malam
- Русский
- Пятнистая сферамия
- ไทย
- ปลาอมไข่จุด
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ホソスジマンジュウイシモチChecked: 2026-11-04
- 沖縄美ら海水族館 — ホソスジマンジュウイシモチChecked: 2026-11-07
- Museums Victoria — Orbiculate Cardinalfish, Sphaeramia orbicularis (Cuvier 1828)Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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