Cheilodipterus quinquelineatus
Five bold stripes, big eyes, reef crevices: spot this small cardinalfish year-round in Egypt's Red Sea Riviera and the Philippine Visayas.
A small, elongated fish around 9 cm with a big-eyed, slightly bulldog-jawed cardinalfish profile. Five crisp black stripes run the length of a silvery-white body, with the stripes fading toward a pale tail marked by a single dark spot at the base. Usually seen hovering in small loose groups near reef structure rather than out in open water.
Look for them hovering in loose clusters just above or inside coral heads, staghorn thickets and reef crevices, often sharing shelter with other small cardinalfish. They are unhurried around divers, drifting back into cover rather than bolting, and tend to be most active feeding on small crustaceans and zooplankton around dusk. Most logged sightings describe them as uncommon at a given site rather than schooling in numbers, so a sighting is usually a handful of individuals, not a swarm.
Like other cardinalfish, males of this species are mouthbrooders, carrying the fertilised egg mass in their mouth until the young hatch, so a male seen with a visibly swollen jaw may be guarding a brood rather than feeding.
No clear season shows in the data, and with a comfortable range of roughly 25 to 29 C, these fish sit on reef structure year-round across their tropical range.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most reliably logged in Egypt, especially the Red Sea Riviera and South Sinai, and in the Philippines across the Visayas and Palawan. Cambodia's Sihanoukville area and Palau's Koror & Malakal region also turn up strong numbers, with further sightings in Guam, the Maldives' Central Atolls, Australia and Thailand.
Mapping where Fivelined Cardinalfish is logged…
Egypt's Red Sea Riviera and South Sinai are the strongest areas, alongside the Visayas and Palawan in the Philippines. They also show up reliably in Cambodia's Sihanoukville region, Palau, Guam and the Maldives' Central Atolls.
There is no strong seasonal pattern in the sightings data. They live on tropical reefs in water from about 25 to 29 C, so they are present and diveable throughout the year.
Check for five dark stripes running along a slim silvery body about the length of your hand, big eyes, and a small dark spot at the base of the tail. They hover near coral heads and crevices rather than swimming in open water.
They top out at around 9 cm, making them one of the smaller reef fish you'll spot hovering near coral structure. Their small size and habit of sheltering in crevices means a close, patient look is often needed to confirm the stripe pattern.
Yes. As with other cardinalfish, the male takes on mouthbrooding duty, holding the fertilised eggs in his mouth until they hatch. A male doing this often looks like he has an oddly swollen jaw.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Iridescent Cardinalfish
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