English Name: Ghost cardinalfish
Family: APOGONIDAE
LocalName: Loabodu bureki
Order: Perciformes
Size: Max. 10cm
Specimen: MRS/0028/86
Distinctive Characters: First dorsal fin with 7 spines, second dorsal fin with 1 spine and9 rays. Anal fin with 2 spines and 8 rays. Pectoral fin with 13 rays. Body depth 2.7 in standard length. A broad body. Ridge of preopercle smooth; margin finely serrated. Postorbital of head is almost equal to halfeye diameter. First dorsal spine short. Pectoral fin longer than pelvic fin.
Colour: Overall coppery or silvery with a darksaddle on upper half of caudal finbase and wedge shaped bar below eye. Upper part of first dorsal fin black. Second dorsal and anal fin dusky. Caudal lobes darker than the rest of the tail. Habitat and Biology: Usually seen among the staghorn coral. Nocturnal in habit.
Distribution: lndo-Pacific.
Remarks: Apogon saeavensis is one of acomplex of three very similar species found in the Maldives. One of the others is Apogon guarnensi.r; the third has not yet been scientifically described. Previously recorded in the genus Ostorhynchus in the Catalogue of Fishes of the Maldives, Vol. 1, page 20.