Common Name: Spinyeye Cardinalfish

Distribution: Uncommon in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, Red Sea to South Africa and to the Line and Tuamoto islands, north to Ryukyu Islands, south to New South Wales, Australia. In Australia recorded from the north of Western Australia, throughout the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to Sydney in New South Wales.

Ecological Notes: Frequents clear water reef flats, lagoons and seaward reefs, to a depth of at least 50 m.

Additional Notes: Body clear to pink translucent, single dark stripe from snout, through eye and tapering to caudal peduncle. Black spot at tail base in centre of stripe, unlike similar P. exostigma which has black spot slightly above level of tail base and end of stripe. Cryptic species, usually in crevices or overhangs by day, venturing out at night to feed on invertebrates. Grows to 11 cm.

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.130.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Pristiapogon+fraenatus. Accessed 02/07/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/5757 Accessed 11/04/18.