Taeniamia melasma
Blackspot cardinalfish | Archamia melasma
Taeniamia melasma, adult, Dampier, WA, Photo: Andrew Green
Distribution
Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Translucent pale silvery-grey with orange/yellow rear margins on scales, which create fine wavy vertical lines on body. Dark bar under eye (not always present), and black spot behind upper operculum with darkish patch below. T. biguttata (Twinspot Cardinalfish) has spot on tail base.
Information
Max Size: 11 cm
Sea Temperature Range: N/A
Depth: 1-12m
Habitat Generalization Index: N/A
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Not Evaluated
Occurrence: Infrequent (6.9% of sites)
Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
Abundance: Many (18 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: RD Stuart-Smith, GJ Edgar, AJ Green, IV Shaw. 2015. Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland