Sao Tome and Principe are a pair of island groups in the Gulf of Guinea, right off the West Coast of the African continent. Sao Tome and Principe are in tropical waters of the East Atlantic Ocean and so far from any aquarium collections that the hobby is really unaware about what kind of neat fish can be found there.
Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences has been exploring the northern island of Principe together with a survey team to assess the biological diversity and fish fauna of this understudied part of the world. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Rocha and his team have made a number of great new observations about the fish species they’ve seen while diving around Principe.
Perhaps the most novel discovery is the sighting of a lovely blue damselfish in the Chromis genus. The unknown Chromis has a gorgeous blue color that bears some resemblance to the blue reef Chromis, C. cyanea, but it also has pretty yellow fins like the yellow tail reef fish, Chromis enchrysura.
It’ll probably be a while until we get an official description for the new blue Chromis from Principe since there’s other Chromis species still awaiting an official name. Hopefully a future expedition by Dr. Rocha and The Academy will head to Sao Tome so we can see and learn more about the interesting Liopropoma which were discovered there a few years ago. [CalAcademy]
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