Chrysiptera arnazae is the newest described damselfish species

Chrysiptera arnazae is the newest described species of damselfish in this popular genus of aquarium fish. The yellowtail demoiselle, C. parasema is one of the most ubiquitous fish in the marine hobby, a species which many of us have used to cycle our first marine tanks. In the past few years we’ve seen the availability of a new damselfish species which until now it has been referred to as C. cf. parasema, in recognition of it’s similarity to the more commonly available species. The more-yellowtailed damselfish has now been formally described as C. arnazae by Allen & Erdmann in the latest issue (16:2) of Aqua which has yet to be released. C. arnazae differs from C. parasema by having yellow not only on the caudal fin and peduncle but also on the posterior margins of the dorsal, anal and pelvic fins. The newly described species comes from Papua new Guinea (PNG), the Solomon Islands and some Eastern parts of Indonesia and we own a small group of these which were obtained by an LFS from the wholesaler Quality Marine, a frequent importer of fish from these areas. We’ve been keeping this species for a while now and aside from growing just a little larger than yellowtail demoiselles, the flashy blue and gold pelvic fins give this species quite a bit of flair, making it one of our favorite new damselfish species. For more information on the closely related blue and gold Chrysiptera species visit Scott Michael’s blog pot on Demoiselles (Taxonomy) in Distress.