Craterastrea levis joins the newly minted family of stony corals: Coscinaraeidae

Craterastrea levis is not exactly a new coral, it was described in 1983 and it is known to exist in Egypt, Chagos and the Red Sea. Due to some superficial resemblance, Craterastrea was later synonymized with Leptoseris hawaiiensis and remained so until recently…

Lotilia klausewitzi : it’s no longer L. graciliosa if it comes from the West Pacific

Lotilia klausewitzi is the name of a new species of nano goby from the West Pacific Ocean that was just described and differentiated from Lotilia graciliosa which is now officially recognized as coming only from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. In…

Cirrhilabrus squirei: First specimen caught and shipped to BlueHarbor

“Cirrhilabrus squirei” is a spanking new labrid to be added to the growing list of fairy wrasses species. Collected in the Coral Sea, this ultra gorgeous species pays homage to Cirrhilabrus johnsoni, as well as Cirrhilabrus cf. lanceolatus (The Pintail…

Cirrhilabrus humanni “Stubby-fin Fairy Wrasse” from Alor, Indonesia officially described

Cirrhilabrus humanni is one of 25 new species to be documented from the East Indies, and will be featured in Allen and Erdmann’s new book. In May 2010, Ned and Anna De Loach documented a previously unknown fairy wrasse in the island of…

Unusual flasher wrasse from the Komodo Islands may turn out to be a new species

Flasher wrasses are ubiquitously distributed around Indian and Pacific Oceans. With their bright colors, fondness of relatively shallow depths and living in large congregations, it’s not difficult to spot them in the wild and hence, new species are not often…

New shark species discovered off the coast of the Galapagos

When we hear about sharks in the wild, we tend to hear negative stories discussing their decline in the wild or the negative impact on shark finning, but some positive news appeared recently when a team of scientists announced their…

Blastomussa loyae resurrected as a valid species from the Red Sea

Blastomussa loyae was first described from the Red Sea in 1978 as a separate species from Blastomussa merleti due to the separated walls and ‘irregular voids’ in the corallites of colonies. Blastomussa loyae was first discovered growing in abundance alongside B. merleti but…

Taiwan endemic coral Pseudosiderastrea formosa shows there’s still a lot of new corals out there

Pseudosiderastrea formosa is a newly described species of stony coral that is so far only known from shallow coastal waters of Taiwan. The new Pseudosiderastrea formosa is an encrusting species of stony coral which is related to the extremely hardy…

Bryaninops discus and B. spongicolus are two recently described nano gobies from the Red Sea

Bryaninops discus and B. spongicolus are two new fish from the Red Sea which will probably be followed by a lot more descriptions over the coming year. In preparation for the publication of the ultimate guide to Red Sea reef…

Pseudochromis ammeri and P. eichleri add to the dizzying array of dottyback species

Pseudochromis ammeri and Pseudochromis eichleri are two new species of dottybacks which have just been described from the Philippines and Indonesia. Both Pseudochromis ammeri and P. eichleri are described as species of striped dottybacks, similar to each other in appearance as well…