Rare and Deepwater fish vendor Unique Fins is holding a single specimen of the Anthiadinae species Odontanthias rhodopeplus, that it claims is probably the rarest fish to be imported in the 2020s so far.
With no english common names, Boro-sakuradai, as it’s called in Japanese, inhabits rocky reefs 300 metres (984 feet,) deep, 240 metres deeper than its much better-known cousin Odontanthias borbonius, and 100 metres down into the faintly lit Twilight Zone. According to the Churaumi Fish Encyclopedia, there it lives a solitary life, its beauty, colors, and filamentous fins only appreciated when brought to the surface on a fishing line or by way of bottom trawl.
But Brian Greene has experienced Odontanthias firsthand in the depths and corrected us on our Facebook Page, saying “Odontanthias are not solitary, almost always in groups. Usually 5-10, but I have seen certain species eating plankton off the bottom in the hundreds, just like shallow anthiines.”
Image credit India, Neendakara, by PAULOSE JACOB PETER
Origin
Odontanthias rhodopeplus comes from the Western Pacific where it has been found off Japan at the Ryukyu Islands, and Manado, North Sulawesi in Indonesia. But it has also been found in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar (where the type specimen originates from,) as well as the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. UF’s fish was collected off Japan, as you might expect it had to be decompressed, and the waters it came up from were a chilly 65F/18.3C. They’ve raised the temperature to 68F/20C since then.
The freshly caught fish was held in Japan for one month before export and now measures 3.5”/8.9cm. Males of the species can hit 6.3”/16cm, with large mouths and the luminous pink and yellow facial color combo we all go crazy for. So just how rare is it?
Never been caught alive
There are 14 species of Odontanthias, and rhodopeplus was first described by Gunther in 1872. But despite covering many super rare species of Odontanthias in Reef Builders’ 20-year history, we’ve never written about a live O.rhodopeplus before. In 2015 KaiTheFishGuy LemonTYK wrote that only five species had been imported for the fish trade, O.borbonius, fuscipinnis, chrysostictus, unimaculatus, and katayamai, and that, in 2015, O.rhodopeplus had never been caught alive.
Since then we have seen images of one being held in the Churaumi Aquarium in Japan, but Unique Fins tells us that one has never been exported before. Due to the species being so widespread and living at such depths in the oceans, we just don’t know how abundant they are in nature. But in private aquaria, and the reefkeeping hobby at least, it’s the first we have ever heard of this fish, and the first time we have documented one being exported and offered for sale.
Five figure fish
The price? We had to squeeze UF Marine a little to divulge and put an actual figure on what they first quoted as “five figures”. But a high net-worth individual could get them to part with this treat from the Twilight Zone for a cool $20,000.
Main image by Ramachandran, S. / Fishery Survey of India, Kochi, CC BY-NC 4.0.
