Description

Also known as Narrow-lined Cardinalfish, Nurseryfish, Painted Cardinal, Painted Cardinalfish, Red-barred Cardinal, Red-barred Cardinalfish.

Found in dense schools, during the day often sheltering at the entrance to caves, or amongst branching corals, dispersing at night, to feed over silty, coral, mud, rubble, and sandy bottoms of sheltered bays, lagoons, mangroves, and patch reefs.
They feed nocturnally on crustaceans, fish, and zooplankton
Length - 9cm
Depth - 2-60m
Widespread Indo-Pacific

Males incubate their eggs inside their mouths, as the egg masses increase in size they can be found with wide open mouths where they shift the eggs around to aerate the egg masses. Ref: https://fishbase.org/summary/Taeniamia-fucata