---
title: Large-Toothed Cardinalfish (Cheilodipterus macrodon)
scientific_name: Cheilodipterus macrodon
common_name: Large-Toothed Cardinalfish
taxon: Cardinals
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-08T14:04:41.062Z
updated: 2026-08-15T13:22:12.056Z
tags: Large-Toothed Cardinalfish, Cheilodipterus macrodon, Cardinals, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/cardinals/large-toothed-cardinalfish
---

# Large-Toothed Cardinalfish (*Cheilodipterus macrodon*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Cardinals (*Apogonidae*)
- **Size:** up to 25 cm
- **Depth:** 0-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Caves and ledges on reef slopes
- **Reproduction:** Mouthbrooder, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- large pale cardinalfish with faint dark stripes fading in adults
- obvious canine teeth, visible when the mouth is open
- black spot on the tail base, ringed in white in young fish
- length up to 25 cm

Twenty-five centimeters (10 in) - the largest cardinalfish here and the one with teeth. Most of the family picks plankton and small crustaceans out of the dark; this one eats fish, and the canines in the front of its jaw are visible when it opens up.

It hangs in the mouth of a cave through the day, usually alone or in twos, and hunts at night along the reef. Its own juveniles shelter among urchin spines, like other cardinalfish, which puts them in the same refuge as their eventual prey.

The stripes fade with age. A young fish is boldly lined and a big adult is nearly plain, which is why the two get identified as different species by people working from photographs.

And like the rest of the family, the male broods the clutch in his mouth. In a fish that eats other fish, holding a mouthful of eggs for a week without swallowing them is a piece of self-control worth appreciating.

## Also known as

- **English:** largetoothed cardinalfish, Big-toothed Cardinal, Big-toothed Cardinal-fish
- **French:** Apogon à grandes dents, Apogon
- **Italian:** Cardinale tigre
- **German:** Tiger-Kardinalbarsch
- **Portuguese:** Cardeal-tigre
- **Dutch:** Tijgerkardinaalbaars
- **Czech:** parmovec pruhovaný
- **Japanese:** リュウキュウヤライイシモチ, Ryukyuyaraiishimochi
- **Chinese:** 大目側仔, 大面側仔, 巨牙天竺鯛
- **Russian:** Большезубый хилодиптер
- **DA:** Ottestribet kardinalfisk
- **FIJ:** tina
- **TAH:** 'upaparu
- **TH:** ปลาอมไข่เขี้ยวใหญ่

## Scientific synonyms

- *Apogon macrodon* (Lacepède, 1802)
- *Apogon melanurus* Bleeker, 1860
- *Centropomus macrodon* Lacepède, 1802
- *Cheilodipterus heptazona* Bleeker, 1849
- *Cheilodipterus lineatus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Chelidopterus macrodon* (Lacepède, 1802)
- *Cheliodipterus macrodon* (Lacepède, 1802)
- *Paramia octolineata* Bleeker, 1872

## Range

Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/cardinals/large-toothed-cardinalfish)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*