Ghost Cardinalfish

Description: Characterized by brown color, dark brown on back, with coppery or silvery reflections; presence of narrow dark brown band below eye; dark bar or saddle across caudal peduncle; greatest depth of body 2.4-2.7 in SL (Ref. 90102).

Mouthbrooders (Ref. 240). Distinct pairing during courtship and spawning (Ref. 205).

Dorsal spines (total): 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 9; Analspines: 2; Analsoft rays: 8

Nocturnal species which occurs inshore near reefs (Ref. 7300). Feeds on zooplankton and benthic animals (Ref. 11889, 6110). Exhibits the black gut phenomenon. In nocturnal predators, it appears to serve to conceal bioluminiscent prey in the stomach cavity (Ref. 46685).

Common in reef flats and shallow lagoons, but hiding by day within Acropora thickets and other corals, as well as in holes and crevices and emerging at night to forage on free-swimming invertebrates (Ref. 1602). Also found in sheltered seaward slopes in 1-20 m (Ref 90102). Feeds on small fishes and benthic invertebrates (e.g. shrimps - alpheids and penaieds; isopods, copepods, crab larvae, polychaete worms); relatively close to cover, within about 1-2 m (Ref. 11890).

分布於印度-太平洋區，西起紅海、熱帶西太平洋到琉球群島，南迄澳洲。台灣分布於南部、東北部、及蘭嶼等。

通常以下雜魚處理，用作魚飼料，有時會曬成小魚乾自家食用，並無任何經濟價值。

體長圓而側扁。頭大。吻長。眼大。前鰓蓋棘完全，惟邊緣平滑，尾鰭叉狀。D. VII-I，9； A. II，8； P. 14-13； GR. 7-8 + 17-19；Ll. 26-27； HL. 2.15-2.38； BD. 2.24-2.67 in SL；SnL. 3.84-4.2；ED. 2.53-2.83 in HL。體呈黃銅色，或銀白色而在尾柄上部有一暗鞍帶，除第一背鰭前部暗棕色外，其它各鰭淡色；眼下方到前鰓蓋角處另有一暗色窄帶延伸，其寬度遠不及瞳孔直徑之1/2，是和/A. savayensis/區別之重要依據。Apogon guamensis為同種異名。

主要棲息於潟湖或礁臺之枝狀珊瑚區。白天停留在珊瑚枝芽間，晚上則外出覓食浮游性之小型底棲無脊椎動物。

Nectamia fusca, commonly known as ghost cardinalfish, is a marine fish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.