Every year there’s a great number of reef fish described but many of the coolest fish, as far as aquarists are concerned, are discovered by a small band of usual suspects. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the California Academy of Sciences has come up with a handful of delectable reef fish from the poorly explored depths of Easter Island.
Being a plane ride beyond the beaten path, Easter Island is a journey and a half from the modern world. Although we hear the ominous tales of its human society often enough, we knew very little about the exotic reef fish that live in its depths, but now we’ve gotten a look at several truly exciting new species.
When Pyle, Greene, Rocha & their ilk go deep, you can count on them usually coming up some cool new species of anthias, and that’s exactly what they’ve delivered from Isla Pascua. There’s a cute new Plectranthias that definitely looks like a close cousin of P. bennetti described last year and two other more classic ‘Anthias’.
I’m not the biggest fan of Rabaulichthys but the new Easter Island specimens definitely sport some beautiful colors and markings. Finally, that pair of Pseudanthias are quite beautiful too, with all of these sporting a generous degree of red and yellow markings.
Oh yeah, there’s a new Chromis too but we can’t tell how pretty it is in its condition, but the yellow tail and pectoral fins aren’t too shabby either. Check out this short travelogue video of the CAS Dive team’s trip to Easter Island, and look out for these new species to get officially minted in the coming months and year(s).
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