Site fidelity and homing behaviour in coral reef cardinalfishes

Abstract

Tagged adult cardinalfishes Apogon doederlini, Cheilodipterus artus and Cheilodipterus quinquilineatus persisted to within an average of 36–79 cm of their initial resting positions within One Tree Reef lagoon for over 8 months in A. doederlini and over 16 months in C. artus and C. quinquilineatus. In addition, 56–81% of tagged fish displaced c. 1 km, and 33–63% of tagged fish displaced c. 2 km returned to their point of collection within 3 days. As cardinalfishes are often found densely aggregated at resting sites, their extended use of specific sites on reefs may represent a localized, predictable resource for predators and a significant source of spatial variation in nutrient input to reef systems via faeces.