About Ostorhinchus cookii (Macleay, 1881)
Ostorhinchus cookii, with common names including Cook's cardinalfish, Cook's soldierfish, blackbanded cardinal, and blackbanded cardinalfish, is a species of marine fish in the family Apogonidae. This species reaches a maximum total length of 10 centimetres. It is a reef fish that is used in the aquarium trade. Its distribution ranges from the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman south to KwaZulu Natal, and extends eastward into the western Pacific from Japan to the Great Barrier Reef and New Caledonia. It has also been recorded in Tonga and the Persian Gulf. This nocturnal species inhabits rocky areas and coral reefs from below the low water mark down to a maximum depth of 10 metres (33 feet), and spends daytime near ledges. It lives either solitarily or in small groups. Macleay did not explicitly state who the specific name honours, but it almost certainly commemorates Captain James Cook (1728–1779), the British explorer, navigator, and cartographer. Cook named the species' type locality, the Endeavour River in Queensland, after his ship HMS Endeavour, after he beached the ship there for repairs in 1770.
