Keeling Deepwater Cardinalfish

This species is distinguished by the following set of characters: no opercular spine; ribs on the last abdominal vertebra reduced or absent; tongue toothless; no maxillary mustache-like process; tubercle on inner symphysis of lower jaw; total gill rakers 21-22; vertebrae 10 + 15; pored lateral-line scales 46-48 + 3-4; D VII-I,10; pectoral-fin rays 19-20; pyloric caeca 8-10; orbital diameter 14.5-15.4 % SL; length of lower-jaw 16.0-17.6 % SL (Ref. 93890).

The type specimens are both females with a great number of eggs at several developmental stages; the most developed eggs were ca. 0.5 mm in diameter, round with a single oil globule.

Dorsal spines (total): 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 10; Vertebrae: 25