Banggai cardinalfish, pic:Wikipedia
Banggai cardinalfish lives like the name says in Banggai island, Indonesia. It’s living area is also world known muck diving place Lembeh Strait, which is not so far away from here.
But now at least one amazingly beautiful Banggai cardinalfish has moved to one of our dive site called Kampung Baru! This fish has travelled a long way to Bunaken National Marine Park.
First time I saw this absolutely unique fish I was doing Discover Scuba Dive with my student and two days ago I saw the same fish in the same place when doing Scuba Diver course with mother and daughter from the USA. Both times I had no camera, so no proof again.
But yesterday other divers of Siladen Resort & Spa saw the same fish so I’m not alone anymore! They also saw in Kamppung Baru the Blue-ringed octopus, three different kind of frog fish and many seahorses!
Banggai cardinalfish is very rare species, one reason is that it’s hunted for aquariums. This fish has extremely limited geographic range and population size. The estimate is that there’s only two million individuals in the reefs. It is also bred in the captivity but is still close to extinction.
Have you seen this fish when diving?
Picture is from here.
Heini
[...] We have had visits of whale shark, many eagle rays, thresher sharks, had great visibility, visitors from far away, dugongs, blue-ringed octopus and other special marine [...]
By: What a year 2011! « Siladen Resort and Spa, Bunaken Marine Park on December 29, 2011
at 11:22 am