Favites monticularis is a spikey new species of stony coral

The moon brain corals of the family Faviidae have yielded some interesting new species lately, but the newly described Favites monticularis will stand out in your mind, literally. Favia camranensis was certainly neat with its shingle-like corallites but the spiny corallite walls…

Pempheris flavicycla sweeper is endowed with a brilliant yellow eye

The yellow eye sweeper, Pempheris flavicycla is new species of a group that gets no airtime in the aquarium, but just because we don’t acknowledge them doesn’t exist in beautifully colored species. For the unfamiliar with sweepers, their overall shape is…

Introducing the coffee basslet, Acanthoplesiops cappuccino

Apparently, Acanthoplesiops cappuccino didn’t get the memo that Reef Builders already did their round up of the top new reef fish species of 2013. The cool little coffee-themed and coffee-named basslet is a new species from the Red Sea by Anthony…

The five best new reef fish species of 2013

As in previous years, 2013 has been an excellent year for new species of reef fish being discovered, and described. As usual there’s been a lot of Eviota and Trimma gobies, the dwarf gobies are plentiful, and there’s been a…

Favia camranensis, a new species of moon coral with corallites like shingles

Favia camranensis is a new species of moon brain coral recently described by Yuri Latypov from colonies discovered in Vietnam. Found living in monospecific aggregations of five to twenty colonies at Hon Nai Reef in Cam Ranh Bay, Favia camaranensis differs…

Ctenactis triangularis, a new coral species from Andaman Islands, India

Just when we thought 2013 was going to be mediocre for new coral species descriptions, along comes Ctenactis triangularis to show us there’s still some surprises in stony corals this year. Described from three specimens in the Andaman Sea, Ctenactis triangularis…

Paracheilinus rennyae, a new flasher wrasse from Flores Indonesia

Paracheilinus rennyae is a new species of flasher wrasse recently described with a very unique and distinct outline to its profile. Looking not unlike the smooth edged Paracheilinus octotaenia from the Red Sea, Paracheilinus rennyae comes from southwestern Flores Island in the…

Balanopsammia wirtzi, a new azoox coral species and genus from the Cape Verde Islands

Newly described stony corals are few and far between but West Africa has been hiding more than that in accessible, relatively shallow water. The new coral Balanopsammia wirtzi is an azooxanthellate stony coral from West Africa which was recently discovered to…

Pomacentrus micronesicus – a new damselfish species from the Marshall Islands

As it there weren’t enough blue damselfish to confuse us on identification, along comes Pomacentrus micronesicus to add one more species to the mix. Identified from ten specimens collected around Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the new Micronesian damselfish is…

Four new species of Eviota gobies from French Polynesia

Four new species of Eviota dwarf gobies have just been described from French Polynesia. Although the new tiny reef fish are probably very beautiful in real life, Alive, all we have to go on is a handful of images of these fish…