Plectranthias kojiorum, an Attractive New Species of Marbled Perchlet

Plectranthias kojiorum is the newest species of perchlet from the cradle of biodiversity for this genus which appears to be the northwest Pacific Ocean. This Japanese perchlet was first recognized as being something new and different by the staff at the…

Plectranthias polygonius & P. hinano are Two New Species from the Central Pacific

Plectranthias polygonius and P. hinano are two new species from our favorite group of dwarf basslets, and good thing too because there seems to be tons of them to be found in deep waters of the world. These two new…

Plectranthias purpuralepis is Taiwan’s Newest Basslets Species

Plectranthias purpuralepis is a brand new species of deepwater basslet coming from the North end of Taiwan in the Three Northern Islands area. It’s not surprising that this new Plectranthias is found in deep water like so many of its…

Plectranthias cruentus, a New Perchlet Species from Lord Howe Island

Plectranthias cruentus is a very unexpected new species of perchlet discovered in the remote waters of Australia’s Lord Howe Island region. The sole photo of a freshly preserved specimen collected off Ball’s Pyramid shows a fish that looks quite a…

Plectranthias ryukyuensis, Japan’s Ninth New Species of Perchlet

Plectranthias ryukyuensis is a new species of our favorite group of basslets which as the name describes, come from the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan. The new Ryukyu basslet is closely related to the similar looking Plectranthias sagamiensis which is…

Plectranthias maekawa, a New Deepwater Basslet Species from Japan

Plectranthias maekawa is a new species of deepwater fish from our favorite group of not-quite-anthias, the Plectranthias ‘basslets’. While the new Maekawa basslet was officially described by scientists late last year, this little gem has made at least one appearance in Japanese…

Plectranthias ahiahiata is a New Species from Easter Island

Plectranthias ahiahiata is newest inductee to a group of fish that are among the most interesting of the rare deepwater reef fish in the aquarium hobby. Interestingly, we were treated to a preview of this new fish as soon as…

Will the REAL Apricot Basslet Please Stand Up?

Plectranthias are one of the funnest and prettiest group of small and rare reef fish. Besides P. inermis, the majority of the other species are only found in deep water and it’s always a treat when we get to see…

Some Gorgeous New Reef Species Discovered In Easter Island

Every year there’s a great number of reef fish described but many of the coolest fish, as far as aquarists are concerned, are discovered by a small band of usual suspects. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the California…

Okeanos Continues To Amaze With Deep Sea Dives In Samoa

NOAA is back to wowing us with incredible images of marine life from the deep sea with the latest Okeanos expedition. The first mission of the year is a series of deep dives with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) exploring the…