New "Psychadelic" Frogfish Found: Histiophryne psychedelica

April 4th, ScubaMagazine.net

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There is a new species of frogfish that has not previously be known nor named that has turned up in the shallow waters of Ambon Bay, an island in the Indonesia archipeligo.

As is often the case, a Maluku Divers senior dive guide named Toby Fadirsyair, and Buck and Fitrie Randolph, two of the co-owners of Maluku Divers, were the first to discover and notice the reclusive animal about a 15 years ago, but no photos were taken nor existed. Upon seeing the fish again last year, they and co-owners Andy and Kerry Shorten discreetly sent the photo to colleagues asking for an ID. The photos eventually made their way to Jack Randall, a famed ichthyologist at Honolulu's Bishop Museum, the same Bishop Museum staffed by famed icthyologist and Cis-Lunar Rebreather diver Professor Richard Pyle.

"It was so distinct," Randall recalled. He said figured it might belong to the frogfish family, but he was unsure."I said, 'This is one for Ted Pietsch.' "

Lead author of the new frogfish species paper published in this month's edition of Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Professor Theodore Pietsch, of the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences in Washington University, Seattle initially has this to say; ""I can say that in my 40 or so years studying frogfishes and anglerfishes in general, I have never seen one like this. Very striking is the highly unusual, flat face that allows the eyes to be directed forward, perhaps providing for binocular vision. The dorsal, anal, and caudal fins appear to be highly fleshy, covered by loose skin. Also, looking closely at the forehead, I can't see any trace of a luring apparatus. If I had to say what it's closest living relative might be, I'd suggest the genus Histiophryne, but this taxon differs in a host of other ways. In summary, it's quite unlike any antennarioid I've ever seen and most likely represents a genus new to science."

Pietch contacted one of his graduate students, a Rachel Arnold who was in Australia at the time on another frogfish expedition. She dropped everything and headed straight to Ambon, arriving 3 days later.

On her first dive, she saw 2 of the animals, including a female clutching her eggs in her tail. She captured one of the animals and unfortunately, deliberately killed it and wrapped it in an alcohol soaked cloth.

When professor Pietch saw the specimen, the unique coloration had leached out, but upon microscopic examination, the characteristic striping pattern was there. Pietch reported that the odd washed-out body color jogged his memory about several fish he received 17 years prior. DNA analysis by Arnold on both fish proved they were the same, so Pietch had been sitting on a new species since 1992.

Although various sensationalist, misinformed media are reporting the animal uses a unique means of locomotion by propelling itself forward with jets from its gills, this is not an uncommon behavior for small frogfish, as I have HD videotaped a green juvenile frogfish the size of a small marble on Bangka Island at Mimpi Indah Resort using exactly the same locomotive behavior, a video of which can be seen here in the very first opening sequence:

http://www.vimeo.com/1513790

It is being reported that the new frogfish may have the ability to look forward simultaneously with both eyes similar to a human vision, which is binocular vision, compared to the common type of fish vision which both sideways looking eyes see different images.

Credit for the photos herein goes to co-author of the Copei article, David Hall, a wildlife photographer and owner of seaphotos.com.