Flower Cardinalfish, Bullseye Cardinalfish, Cardinalfish, Gold Cardinalfish, Ring-tail Cardinalfish, Ringtailed cardinalfish

Synonymised
Ostorhinchus fleurieu Lacepède, 1802
Ostorhynchus fleurieu Lacepède, 1802

Description
Body oblong, moderately deep and compressed; lateral line well developed, extending posteriorly to caudalfin base. Snout moderately pointed. Posterior margin of preopercle serrated. No enlarged caninoid teeth on jaws. Base of anal fin subequal to base of second dorsal fin in length; caudal fin emarginate. Size 11cm. Adults occur in small schools made up of pairs of fish from 7m to at least 73m depth, associated with coral reefs.

Color
Body bronze dorsally, bright yellow orange ventrally; a large black spot (in young) or broad black band (in adult), not broadened dorsally and ventrally, at posterior part of caudal peduncle; 2 bright blue longitudinal lines from snout to operculum, as well as a similar-colored oblique line along upper jaw; a small black spot on each lateral-line scales; fins reddish.

Range
Red Sea and Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and East Africa, Seychelles, India, Sri Lanka, the Indo-Malayan region and Hong Kong.

Distribution
Indo-Pacific. Remarks: inhabits coral or rocky reefs. Very similar to A. aureus (Lacepède, 1802), sometimes treated as a junior synonym of A. fleurieu, has a distinct black bar (broadened dorsally and ventrally, forming hourglassshaped, in adult) forming a ring around base of caudal fin.