After combing the literature for a name for a damselfish from Tufi to no avail, we were delighted to hear a confirmation from a credible source that this species is Chrysiptera niger. Dr. Hiroyuki Tanaka directed Dr. Gerrald Allen’s attention towards our image set of the Tufi damselfish. Dr. Allen took one look at the pictures and he recognized it as Chrysiptera niger, a species he himself described from Tufi Inlet, Papua New Guinea in 1975.
So there you have it, the Tufi damslefish, Chrysiptera niger has been described for 35 years but it is brand spankin new to the marine aquarium hobby. Thanks to Dr. Tanaka and Dr. Allen, science and the hobby now know the identity of this fish. To celebrate the good news there’s another full image set of Chrysiptera niger after the break.
