---
title: Orange-lined Cardinalfish (Taeniamia fucata)
scientific_name: Taeniamia fucata
common_name: Orange-lined Cardinalfish
taxon: Cardinals
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-28T22:05:05.503Z
updated: 2026-08-15T22:58:39.988Z
tags: Orange-lined Cardinalfish, Taeniamia fucata, Cardinals, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/cardinals/orange-lined-cardinalfish
---

# Orange-lined Cardinalfish (*Taeniamia fucata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Cardinals (*Apogonidae*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 2-60 m
- **Diet:** Planktivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sheltered reefs and lagoons; dense shoals at cave mouths and in branching coral
- **Reproduction:** Mouthbrooder
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- translucent pink body crossed by dozens of fine orange lines
- dark spot at the base of the tail
- large eye with an orange bar through it
- hangs in dense, near-motionless shoals by day
- up to 10 cm

Look under a ledge or into a cave mouth in daylight and you may find a cloud of these fish hanging almost motionless, packed tight, all facing the same way. They are waiting for dark. At night the shoal breaks up and the fish spread out to take zooplankton.

The males brood. After the female lays, the male takes the whole clutch into his mouth and holds it there for about a week, rolling it to keep water moving over the eggs, and he cannot feed while he does it. That cost is high enough that hungry brooding cardinalfish are known to swallow part of their own clutch: a bad outcome for those eggs, but it keeps the male alive to breed again.

Up close the body is translucent pink crossed by dozens of fine orange lines, with a dark spot at the base of the tail. In a shoal the lines blur together and the whole group reads as a pale orange haze, which is rather the point.

## Also known as

- **English:** Orangelined Cardinalfish, Narrow-lined Cardinalfish, Narrowlined Cardinalfish
- **French:** Apogon à stries orange, Apogon à stries oranges
- **Italian:** Cardinale a bande arancioni
- **Portuguese:** Cardeal-de-recife
- **Czech:** parmovec oranžovopruhý
- **Japanese:** スミツキアトヒキテンジクダイ
- **Chinese:** 褐斑帶天竺鯛
- **Russian:** Оранжевополосый кардинал
- **TH:** ปลาอมไข่ลายทแยง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Apogon fucatus* Cantor, 1849
- *Apogon macropteroides* Bleeker, 1853
- *Archamia dispilus* Lachner, 1951
- *Archamia fucata* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Archamia fuctata* (Cantor, 1849)
- *Archamia irida* Gon & Randall, 1995
- *Archamia macropteroides* (Bleeker, 1853)

---

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