Dottybacks are a diverse group of small tropical marine fish which include many popular species such as the colorful Pictichromis and personable Pseudochromis. While many of these dottybacks have a reputation for being quite pugnacious and aggressive, there are some smaller and delicate looking species in the genus Pseudoplesiops.
This genus includes the precious rose island dottyback as well as the collared dottyback, Pseudoplesiops collare which we’ve actually never seen before. Coming from Central Indonesia, particularly the region of West Papua and PNG this species occurs mostly outside the range of typical aquarium collecting.
However some recent collections around Palu in Central Sulawesi has turned up this rarely see species and it’s quite a different looking dottyback. Its ghostly white body is perched up on long and thin white pectoral fins and accented by two reddish brown bands behind the head.
Growing to barely more than an inch long or 3cm, the collared dottyback is not a fish you’d want to put into a normal reef as it would likely just live within the rockwork and be rarely seen. However if you’ve got a nano tank and like small weird and hard to find fish, the collared dottyback would be a very cool fish for a nano specimen aquarium.
