New Species

New species of Stylaster coral, Errina labrosa

Of all the different types of corals we keep in our aquariums, the group that gets the least amount of our attention or bandwidth is undoubtedly the Stylaster corals. It doesn’t help that Stylaster and Distichopora have very poor survival rates in…

Atelomycterus erdmanni, a new species of catshark from Eastern Indonesia

Atelomycterus erdmanni is a new species of catshark from Indonesia with a very attractive jaguar pattern and a typical slender catshark body shape. The new species is names after Mark Erdmann, a prolific diver, underwater explorer and ichthyologist who has…

Ruby seadragon, Phyllopteryx dewysea, discovered in south Australia

Phyllopteryx dewysea is a new species of seadragon from the southern coast of Western Australia with a brilliant red color giving it the name of Ruby Seadragon. There are only two other species of seadragon, the leafy seadragon, Phycodorus eques,…

Sclerophyllia margariticola is a new species of ‘Mini Scoly’ from the Red Sea

Sclerophyllia margariticola is a new species of small, solitary LPS coral from the Red Sea recently described in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity. The genus Sclerophyllia was first erected in 1879 and it was resurrected to include this new species as well…

Underwater crop circle-building pufferfish officially described as Torquigener albomaculosus

Pufferfish seem to make headlines for all kinds of interesting behaviors from chasing lasers, apparently mourning the loss of a friend, and especially for helping dolphins to get high. But no pufferfish behavior garnered more attention than the elaborate “underwater…

Chelidoperca santosi, a new deepwater fish species from Palawan, Philippines

Chelidoperca is a genus of deepwater basslets which are completely unknown in the aquarium world, which is a shame because these fish are fairly colorful with interesting color patterns. Chelidoperca santosi is the latest species to be described from this…

The Coral Sea Pseudanthias cf. aurulentus looks even more amazing in a reef

A few days ago we wrote about a potentially new Pseudanthias species from Cairns Marine that has been coming out of the Coral Sea. This remarkable fish has been dubbed temporarily as Pseudanthias cf. aurulentus and is a member of the…

Pseudanthias cf. aurulentus from the Coral Sea may turn out to be a new species

The genus Pseudanthias is growing at a rate of at least one new member per year as the reefs of the Pacific continue to drip feed us with brand new, never before seen species. In 2013 we saw the appearance of the…

Pterois paucispinula: Mombasa lionfish is split into two species

Lionfish get a bad rap these days for a single species that is an unwelcome visitor to Caribbean reefs. But the Mombasa lionfish is now represented by two species that know where they belong geographically. Pterois paucispinula is the new species…

Top 10 new fish species of 2014

The last few years have been really hot ones for the discovery and description of new reef fish species and 2014 was no slouch either. Sometimes it seems like new species descriptions are dominated by dwarf gobies of the Eviota and Trimma genera,…