Researchers regularly document fish color against both light and dark backgrounds. Notice how the different color elements of this new species of blenny vary depending on its setting. Photos by D. Ross Robertson and Carole C. Baldwin.
Only about 2 cm long, a tiny new species of blenniiform fish was discovered in the southern Caribbean by Smithsonian scientists Carole Baldwin (NMNH) and D. Ross Robertson (STRI). They have given it the common name: four-fin blenny, due to the division of the dorsal fin into four sections, a distinguishing feature of the genus, one that is unique for blenniform fishes.
Caught by accident during targeted specimen collecting at about 160m depth off Curaçao, Haptoclinus dropi, takes its name from the Smithsonian Institution's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP).
Because Substation Curaçao's manned submersible Curasub travels to much greater depths (300m) than those reached by scuba divers (~70m) or even rebreather divers (~135m), it is used by Smithsonian and other scientists as well as by tourists. Targeted fish specimens are collected with the sub's two flexible hydraulic arms, which can pump out puffs of anaesthetic and suck up stunned fishes; a process that often captures small non-targeted fishes as "bycatch".
"Below the depths accessible for using scuba gear and above the depths typically targeted by deep-diving submersibles, tropical deep reefs are productive ocean ecosystems that science has largely missed. They are home to diverse assemblages of new and rare species that we are only just beginning to understand," explains Baldwin.
Baldwin CC, Robertson RD (2013) A new Haptoclinus blenny (Teleostei, Labrisomidae) from deep reefs off Curacao, southern Caribbean, with comments on relationships of the genus. ZooKeys 306: 71–81, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.306.5198
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