New species of Angelfish

[Luiz Rocha]

Hey guys,

I am a brand new member here, long time lurker, decided to post on some reef fish news and maybe share some of my reef fish knowledge.

Jack Randall and I just described a new species of angelfish (genus Chaetodontoplus) from the western Pacific. It has been identified as Chaetodontoplus mesoleucus for a long time, but genetics revealed that it is in fact a new and distinct species. We named it Chaetodontoplus poliourus, meaning "gray tail" as an allusion to its distinctive color pattern. Here are photos of both species:

Chaetodontoplus poliourus

Chaetodontoplus mesoleucus

Regarding geographical distribution, C. mesoleucus is found mostly in continental locations, being common in Indonesia and the Philippines, while C. poliourus prefers insular areas and is found mostly in Palau and the Solomon Islands.

Now, I have a request for everyone to look for these guys in aquarium shops. I am doing conservation assessments for both of those species, and while I know that C. mesoleucus is common in aquarium shops, I have no info on the other species. Have you ever seen or have any information on C. poliourus in the trade?

If you want more detailed information you can download the full description (PDF paper) at the following address:

http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/57/57rbz511-520.pdf

Cheers,

Luiz

 

[tcmfish]

Hey welcome! That is awesome. I have not seen any Chaetodontoplus poliourus in the trade. (Man another name to learn...)

Copps hinted at this...

But I hope to hear more of your "reef knowledge"!!

 

[Luiz Rocha]

Hehe, the knowledge bit sounded worse than I expected, just wanted to share what I know about fish . While I haven't kept many in aquariums I have around 3,000 logged dives and dove is some pretty amazing places.

I've always kept up with folks in the aquarium trade and sometime when I tell them what fish I collected for my research they want to kill me. I think my record in price are some rare color morphs of the queen angelfish from St. Paul's Rocks, but I have also seen (and collected) fish like Centropyge nahacki and some others from deep Pacific reefs.

Cheers!

 

[copps]

Liuz! Welcome to RC! We met a couple of years ago in Honolulu at John Earle's apartment after meeting to watch John and Rich's Discovery Channel program debut... I was the little Italian guy (my real name is John Coppolino)... probably talking about angelfish... again... welcome here!

I spoke with Jack last month on the news on this fish... congratulations! He was excited that DNA found what he had long known... someone posted a while back asking what Chaetodontoplus "Randall's" was, and I gave a hint without listing the species, as the paper had been accepted but not published...

RC folks... Luiz is the real deal! I can only hope to travel to the locations you have! Now that you are here, you must share some stories...

In reference to C. poliourus, I did see one of these in an aquarium shop in Osaka, Japan this past January... it was collected in Palau... below is a photograph of it I took...

Copps

 

[basser1]

Luiz.... Glad to see you posted this here on RC. As you will find, if haven't already, there are some very knowledgeable reefers here!

 

[massman]

Welcome Luiz.

Must a great thrill to discover new species congrats: beer:

I will keep my eye out in Aus for any potential c. poliourus that may get imported.

A couple of times at depth I have felt I had caught/discovered new species. Only to return to the surface to realise they are common. Must've been narced to think longnose hawks were a new species :lol:

Congrats again

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Welcome to RC, and congrats.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Is the tail color the only difference? In your picture poliourus has much more distinct white patterning extending back through the body, and has a more distinct orange dotting behind the eye stripe. But maybe it's just the picture, or individual differences.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

Welcome and thank you for sharing!

 

[kirkaz]

Big welcome to you Luiz, we hope to see you often.

 

[cas]

Welcome and thank you for sharing your knowledge.

 

[ccampbell57]

YES!!!! Another nut in the basket at RC!

Hi Luiz can't wait to hear and see more stories and pics from you.

 

[Luiz Rocha]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys!

Copps, thanks for the photo and record of poliourus in the aquarium trade, as far as I know this is the only record.

Yes, I remember you from John's house. Those parties were great, and I wish there were more, but it was only a few during the time I was in Hawaii. I am now in the mainland, got a job as a marine biology professor at the University of Texas. I am off to Bali next week, will post some of the photos here when I come back if I see anything interesting.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15652965#post15652965 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LobsterOfJustice
Is the tail color the only difference? In your picture poliourus has much more distinct white patterning extending back through the body, and has a more distinct orange dotting behind the eye stripe. But maybe it's just the picture, or individual differences.

About color differences, the tail is the easiest to spot, but there are a few more. If you look closely you will see that the orange along the dorsal fin extends further back in poliourus than it does in mesoleucus. To be precise, the orange/yellow covers about 4-6 spines in poliourus but only 2 in mesoleucus. Also, the outer margin of the caudal fin is orange in poliourus and transparent in mesoleucus.

The extent of white back through the body is very variable in both species, and so is the orange dotting, so they are not very good characters to distinguish them.

 

[gasman059]

ty SR.