Seales Cardinalfish

Ostorhinchussealei

The Seales Cardinalfish is a fairly new addition to Biota. Most aquarists may not recognize these fish because they’ve always been so scarce in the aquarium trade. Finally, Biota’s captive breeding efforts have made them available.

Juveniles have a yellow accented silver body with blue eyes and contrasting black stripes. Their real beauty shines as they age and they develop a bright lemon yellow coloration, and their stripes take on a warm pinkish hue. The blue eyes and accents on the face become more pronounced and reflective.

Unlike so many reef aquarium fish that are aggressive toward conspecifics, these fish do great in shoals. The ideal tank size for a trio is 30 gallons or larger, though bigger shoals can be kept in larger tanks. It may seem counterintuitive, but offering plenty of safe hiding places encourages these outgoing fish to spend their time in the water column where they are nearly always visible to observers. Their very peaceful nature puts them at risk of bullying from more aggressive species, so they do best with only other peaceful fish.