The only known picture of Plectranthias alcocki won’t win this species any beauty pageants, but based on what we know about the genus it’s highly likely that living specimens display beautiful coloration. Discovered in Southwest India, Plectranthias alcocki is the latest species discovered from deep ocean waters.
Plectranthias alcocki is the newest of nearly 50 species in the genus, and only the second known from the Arabian Sea, with only two specimens having been fished up from between 180 and 320 meters, that’s 590 to about 1000 feet deep! It’s possible the species occurs in more shallow waters but for now that’s where the fish was first caught.
Having been brought up from such great depths it is easy to see why even the “fresh” collected specimen appears to be in rough shape but it still shows the signs of yellow fins, with a reddish orange posterior and a smattering of black color at the base of the dorsal fin. Plectranthias alcocki is described by Bineesh et. al. in the latest issue of Zootaxa.
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