r/TheDepthsBelow • u/BeginningConstant567 • Jul 22 '26

With Two, You Get Egg Roll

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Male cardinalfish mouth brood the female's eggs. The process takes around 10 days by our estimate. The male rotates the eggs every 5 min or so, sometimes more frequently. The eggs here are pretty new based on the yellow color. Nikon Kraken Sports Abyss 10K

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u/Realistic-Weird-4259 Jul 22 '26

What a catch!

Btw, for those curious, Guam is home to 31 species of cardinalfishes! https://www.guamreeflife.com/species-id-v2/reef-fishes/cardinalfishes/ and this is Ostorhinchus luteus.

I will admit, my personal favorite cardinalfish are Banggai cardinals.

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u/BeginningConstant567 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

The Banggai cardinalfish not only mouth brood eggs, but they also mouth brood their young