Skip to content
Lumisia Animals
← Find animals
Ocean animals

Orbiculate cardinalfish

Amazing fact

In orbiculate cardinalfish, the male carries developing eggs in his mouth.

Museums Victoria
Orbiculate cardinalfish in its habitat (illustration)

No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.

An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

In orbiculate cardinalfish, the male carries developing eggs in his mouth.

Check your card before sharing

Preparing your card…

The card and link show only the animal and its discovery. Check them with a grown-up before you send them.

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
Facts about the real animal.
01

It lives in the seas from southern islands such as Amami Oshima to Taiwan and across the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.

02

It looks like the pajama cardinalfish, but its body is grayish and its black vertical bands are thinner.

03

It also lives where seawater and river water mix, among mangroves.

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 Victoria

Basic data

Range
Amami Oshima, Kerama Islands, Iriomote Island, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indo-West Pacific, Tonga Islands, and elsewhere
鳥羽水族館

Where the Orbiculate cardinalfish has been recorded

World map with dots where the Orbiculate cardinalfish has been recorded
Each dot marks a place with observations or specimens shared on GBIF. Some records are of animals that strayed or were brought by people, so the dots are not always where the animal lives.

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
Português (Brasil)
Cardeal-orbicular
Bahasa Indonesia
Serinding malam

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

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.

Report a mistake