At the beginning of this year, we had an unknown damselfish which was caught by Blue Ocean SARL in Madagascar. The damselfish now has a name Pomacentrus vatosoa and is described on the basis of four specimens collected from Nosy Faho. As per the latest release, it is not a Chrysiptera but a Pomacentrus genus. At present this fish is only known from the shallow reefs of Nosy Faho which is northeast of Madagascar, at depths of 15–20 m.
(A1) Pomacentrus vatosoa, (A2) Pomacentrus vatosoa (B1, B2) Pomacentrus atriaxillaris (Y. K. Tea (A1,A2) and G. R. Allen (B1, B2).)
The new damselfish will now commonly known as Corazon’s Damsel named after Corazon Sibayan Shutman, wife of Barnett Shutman, who provided the specimens for this study.As per the analysis of mitochondrial COI sequence data retrieved Pomacentrus trichrourusas as its closest relative and on the basis of coloration details Pomacentrus atriaxillaris as the closest.
Pomacentrus trichrourus
Later this year the new damsel had already made its way in the aquarium trade via LiveAquaria in the Divers-Den section.
Like always it's my day one in the hobby. Always been a hobbyist but never knew would dive so deep in the hobby. I too started with a freshwater aquarium. When I first started saltwater aquarium it just grew on me and I knew that had to do more in this hobby. I am a Post-Grad in Business Administration have worked with Coldstar Logistics, Amazon and Jindal's before jumping completely in the ocean. Other than aquarium hobby I have my interests in travel, digital games and consumer web technology.
