A new species of Terelabrus has just been captured and hauled up from the deep reef and it looks to be acclimating well to aquarium life. The never before seen Terelabrus sp. Japan was collected at a depth of 170 meters (550 feet) by Deep Sea Challengers using the same deep diving submersible that they used to catch other awesome fish such as Odontanthias katayamai, Liopropoma aragai and more recently, that fabulous tattoo jawfish Opistognathus decorus.
Coming from so deep and being so rare, it is unquestionable that the new Terelabrus will also be so-expensive, especially with one of the best seller’s market of rare marine fish being Japan. Up until just a couple of years ago it seemed like Terelabrus was a forgotten genus of hogfish that very few very rare fish fanciers even knew about. Lately, the stunning, interesting and personable Terelabrus rubrovittatus and a similar species have become increasingly available in the aquarium trade.
The video and stills of the newly discovered Terelabrus sp. Japan were taken with a mediocre camera under poor lighting conditions so the fish appears somewhat muted. However as with most wrasse and hogfish species, we have no doubt that this little treasure from a tenth of a mile down will color up into a singular aquarium specimen and we really hope that more photographs of Terelabrus sp. Japan will surface in the future.
