Luminous cardinalfish
Amazing fact
The luminous cardinalfish has a bluish stripe running along the middle of its body.
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The luminous cardinalfish has a bluish stripe running along the middle of its body.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Luminous cardinalfish
- Scientific name
- Rhabdamia gracilis
- Japanese name
- スカシテンジクダイ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Kurtiformes
- Family
- Apogonidae
- Genus
- Rhabdamia
Where the name “Luminous cardinalfish” comes from
The genus name Rhabdamia combines Greek terms for stick and shark.
FishBaseIt lives from Japan's southern Pacific coast to the Ryukyus and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Its body is see-through, showing its bones and organs, and it has a black spot at the base of its tail.
How the Luminous cardinalfish lives
It feeds in currents above reefs during the day and also feeds at night. It forms pairs during courtship and spawning.
FishBaseBasic data
- Range
- Pacific coast of southern Japan to Ryukyu Islands and Indo-Pacific
Where the Luminous 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
- 日本語
- スカシテンジクダイ
- 简体中文
- 箭天竺鲷
- 繁體中文
- 箭天竺鯛
- Português (Brasil)
- Cardeal-gracioso
- Русский
- Изящная рабдамия
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 — スカシテンジクダイChecked: 2026-11-04
- FishBase — Rhabdamia gracilis, Luminous cardinalfishChecked: 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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