We’ve seen a good number of new dottyback species described and imported this year so it’s with great pleasure that we learned that two more new species were recently described from the Indian Ocean. Pseudochromis socotraensis and P. chrysospilos are the two newest species of reef fish to join the dottyback family, not from Indonesia like so many other this year but from the Socotra Archipelago.
The type locality for Pseudochromis socotraensis and P. chrysospilos is located very near to the Red Sea’s inlet to the Indian Ocean so it’s no surprise that P. socotraensis bares a similar appearance to the inimitable Springer’s dottyback from the Red Sea, man that fish is hot.
Unfortunately, the only picture of the Socotra dottyback is of the holotype right before getting his caudal peduncle preserved so it’s not in the best of shape. At least the picture of P. socotraensis does show a slight redness to the body scales, en elongated blue neon line riding the dorsal part of the body and bright blue region below the base of the pectoral fins.
The two new species of Pseudochromis and new records of Pseudochromine and pseudoplesiopine dottybacks from the Socotra Archipelago are described by Anthony Gill and Uwe Zajonz in the latest issue of Zootaxa.
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