Queensland Museum Network Ichthyologist Jeff Johnson and colleagues recently described three new species of fish. The three new species were trawled from Australian waters at depths as deep as 120 metres.
Pseudanthias paralourgus is described from just five specimens collected off south-eastern Queensland and was trawled from depths of 110-120 metres.
Tosana dampieriensis is described from three specimens from off Western Australia and Tosana longipinnis is described from 42 specimens from off eastern Australia.
The purple-tip Anthias (Pseudanthias paralourgus) is only known from off Cape Moreton to the Sunshine Coast and has a distinctive colouration, especially the bright purple tips to the caudal fin lobes. It also appears to have a highly restricted distribution relative to most other species of the genus. This species occurs in mixed shoals
The two new threadtail Anthias species (Tosana dampieriensis and Tosana dampieriensis) are separated from the only other species in the genus, known from Japan to the South China sea, by colouration, body proportions and genetic data.
While it’s not unusual for these fish to be brightly coloured at these depths, it must be noted they are very difficult to collect as they generally occur just above reefs in deep water. They rarely turn up in trawls as the trawlers tend to avoid reef bottom as nets are likely to be torn or hooked up.
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