Sunrise Anthias is a new species discovered in New Caledonia by Quality Marine collectors

The Sunrise Anthias is a super fresh, recently discovered species of Pseudanthias Anthias from New Caledonia. With their exclusive partnership to Short Supply Chain collectors of reef fish from New Caledonia, Quality Marine is the first marine life dealer to ever see or handle this fish. Credit for first collecting this species goes to Antoine Teitelbaum, and credit for first seeing this species goes to Tony Nahacky.

Since it is brand new to science, the new anthias has no latin name and is now going by the ‘official’ common name of New Caledonia Sunrise Anthias. It’s easy to see the similarity between the NC Sunrise Anthias and other common and exotic deepwater, slender Pseudanthias species from the Pacific Ocean.

The red bars on the back of the Sunrise Anthias are in the same neighborhood as the tiger anthias, Pseudanthias lori as well as the yellow spot anthias, Pseudanthias flavoguttatus.  Pseudanthias privitera from the Cook Islands and Pseudanthias aurulenteus from the Pacific Ocean are two similar looking species, which themselves are only found in deeper water approaching 200 feet (~61m).

The new New Caledonia Sunrise Anthias is distinguished by much more pronounced and wider red vertical bars which reach halfway down the flank of the fish’s body, and a bright red saddle at the base of the caudal peduncle (tail fin). Other details of this fish’s unique, specific traits will have to wait for a formal description to be published in the future, once some specimens are pickled and made available to ichthyologists.

But before the fish scientists can get their hands on them, Quality Marine will be releasing the new Sunrise Anthias to the general aquarium market in the coming weeks. Quality Marine is a wholesale importer of marine fish celebrating 35 years in business which deals strictly to retail marine aquarium businesses. If you would like to try your hand the Sunrise Anthias from New Caledonia, have your LFS give Quality Marine a call.

 

A new species of Anthias has been discovered by Quality Marine exclusive collectors in New Caledonia.

A new species of Anthias has been discovered by Quality Marine exclusive collectors in New Caledonia.  Credit for first collecting this species goes to Antoine Teitelbaum, and credit for first seeing this species goes to Tony Nahacky.  When first received by QM, we were unable to conclusively identify them as any of the known species.  Antoine and Tony reached out to a number of ichthyologists, some of whom have confirmed QM Biologist’s suspicion that they are indeed a new species and is in the process of describing it for the scientific community.

This is a deepwater species, found in large schools. Like other anthias, they are planktivores, primarily eating suspended zooplankton and other meaty foods in the currents. Early population estimates show that schools are made up of half females and half males. Males are generally more brilliantly colored, and have a dorsal spine (3rd spine) that extends far beyond the dorsal fin. As a new species, which is possibly endemic to that island chain, they have never been seen before in the marine aquarium trade. The diver who collected these hasn’t named them yet, and so we haven’t listed a new scientific name. However, we have talked with him about a common name, and he is using “New Caledonia Sunrise Anthias.” It is a fitting name for this gorgeous animal, and we are following suit.