The Banggai cardinal fish's popularity as a pet for the home aquarium has landed it on the 2007 IUCN Red List.
In the wild, the striped fish is only found in the Banggai Archipelago off Indonesia.
Human pressures such as the aquarium trade are the main reason for the fish's decline, with habitat loss and climate change also posing major threats.
Fish stocks are in free-fall all over the world, both from overfishing and the aquarium trade. Scientists estimate current extinction rates are at least a hundred to a thousand times higher than natural rates.
We need to protect the world's biodiversity in order to ensure a sustainable future for all of us, Caroline Pollock, a Red List program officer, told National Geographic News.