''Gymnapogon'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of fish in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Apogonidae Cardinalfishes are a family, Apogonidae, of ray-finned fishes found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans; they are chiefly marine, but some species are found in brackish water and a few (notably '' Glossamia'') are found in fresh water. ...

. They are native to the

Indo-West Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the s ...

and central

Pacific Oceans The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, where they occur in

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s and nearby habitat types. These

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

are usually no more than 5 centimeters long and have semitransparent bodies without

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

. The genus name is a

compound noun A compound is a word composed of more than one free morpheme. The English language, like many others, uses compounds frequently. English compounds may be classified in several ways, such as the word classes or the semantic relationship of their ...

formed by combining the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''gymnos'' meaning "naked", referring to the lack of scales in the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

, ''Gymnapogon japonicus'', and ''

Apogon ''Apogon'' is a large genus of fish in the family ''Apogonidae'', the cardinalfishes. They are among the most common fish on coral reefs. Over 200 species have been classified in genus ''Apogon'' as members of several subgenera. Some of these sub ...

'', the type genus of the Apogonidae. One species, the B-spot cardinalfish (''Gymnapogon urospilotus''), is notable for its larvae being rather large, conspicuous and fast-swimming.

Species

There are currently 9 recognized species in this genus:Mabuchi, K., Fraser, T.H., Song, H., Azuma, Y. & Nishida, M. (2014)
Revision of the systematics of the cardinalfishes (Percomorpha: Apogonidae) based on molecular analyses and comparative reevaluation of morphological characters.
''Zootaxa, 3846 (2): 151–203.'' * '' Gymnapogon africanus''

J. L. B. Smith James Leonard Brierley Smith (26 September 1897 – 8 January 1968) was a South African ichthyology, ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought t ...

, 1954 (Crystal cardinalfish) * ''

Gymnapogon annona ''Gymnapogon'' is a genus of fish in the family (biology), family Apogonidae. They are native to the Indo-Pacific, Indo-West Pacific and central Pacific Oceans, where they occur in reefs and nearby habitat types. These species are usually no more ...

'' ( Whitley, 1936) (Naked cardinalfish) * ''

Gymnapogon foraminosus ''Gymnapogon'' is a genus of fish in the family Apogonidae. They are native to the Indo-West Pacific and central Pacific Oceans, where they occur in reefs and nearby habitat types. These species are usually no more than 5 centimeters long and hav ...

'' ( S. Tanaka (I), 1915) * '' Gymnapogon janus'' T. H. Fraser, 2016 Fraser, T.H. (2016): A new species of cardinalfish (''Gymnapogon'', Gymnapogonini, Apogonidae, Percomorpha) from the Philippines. ''Zootaxa, 4107 (3): 431-438.'' * '' Gymnapogon japonicus'' Regan, 1905 * '' Gymnapogon melanogaster'' Gon & Golani, 2002 * '' Gymnapogon philippinus'' ( Herre, 1939) (Philippines cardinalfish) * '' Gymnapogon urospilotus'' Lachner, 1953 (B-spot cardinalfish) * ''

Gymnapogon vanderbilti ''Gymnapogon'' is a genus of fish in the family Apogonidae. They are native to the Indo-West Pacific and central Pacific Oceans, where they occur in reefs and nearby habitat types. These species are usually no more than 5 centimeters long and hav ...

'' ( Fowler, 1938) (Vanderbilt's cardinalfish)

References

Pseudaminae Marine fish genera Taxa named by Charles Tate Regan {{Kurtiformes-stub