There’s a small new species of jawfish recently described from India which is sporting an uncommon amount of yellow coloration for this group of fish. Named Opistognathus pardus, the newly discovered jawfish species if described from only a single specimen which was collected from Quilon, Kerala, on the south west coast of India. The new species is distinct primarily in having a number of small dark spots covering the head, the part you would see sticking out of its burrow, but there’s an attractive dash of yellow coloration around the edge of the gill plate as well as the dorsal, anal and pelvic fins. Besides Sri Lanka the aquarium hobby knows almost nothing about the abundance and distribution of small reef fish living in the Indian Ocean bordering south Asia which is too bad because cute colorful fish like Opistognathus pardus could make a great aquarium subject.
