SCUBA News 307
(ISSN 1476-8011)
February 2026

Happy Lunar New Year!

As we welcome another new year, we're celebrating with a splash of colour from the reef. This issue marks the return of Creature of the Month, and we're looking one of the Red Sea's most striking - and surprisingly under-studied - fish: the Red Sea anthias.

What's New at SCUBA Travel?

Our most read SCUBA News stories last year An eclectic mix where sealife stories alternate with diving destination guides plus cutting down plastic in your cup of tea. SEE TOP 10 Little-Dived Cabrera National Park If you only go diving in one place in the Balearics make it Cabrera. Just 3 boats a day allowed for marvellous scenery and sealife. DIVE CABRERA

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Red Sea Anthias is Creature of the Month

With its vivid colours and elusive habits, the Red Sea anthias (Pseudanthias taeniatus) is one of the region's most eye-catching yet least understood reef fish. February's creature of the month, this striking species is instantly recognisable once you know what to look for - though the dramatic differences between males and females can easily fool even experienced divers.

Male Red Sea Anthias, Pseudanthias taeniatus, in Dahab. Jill Studholme

The male and female fish look very different. Where the male is tomato red with white stripes, the female is golden. She looks, at first glance, a little like the much more common lyretail anthias but without the violet streak from eye to cheek.

Female Red Sea Anthias. Francois Libert/CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

All born female

All Red Sea anthias are born female, and all have the ability to transition into males. They live in a harem structure with one male and many females. When the male dies, the dominant female starts the transition. This sex change can take as little as two weeks, but may take longer. As the female transitions, she will start to display more intense colours and develop longer fins. She also becomes more aggressive, chasing other females.

Female Red Sea Anthias transitioning to a male. Frank Krasovec/CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Where to look for them

They are widely thought to only live in the Red Sea, and even there only in the north. But there has been an unconfirmed sighting in India.

Occasionally they are as shallow as 10 m, but you more often find them between 20 and 40 m. They hover in the water, eating small zooplankton. Pseudoanthias species tend to prefer areas with currents - outer reef slopes and drop-offs - which deliver a stream of plankton for them to eat. To photograph them then, try heading with the current towards them to capture their face or profile.

Head on. Jill Studholme

These lovely fish are not well studied - if you've spotted one - tell us.

Class: Actinopterygii > Order: Perciformes > Suborder: Percoidei > Family: Serranidae > Subfamily: Anthiinae > Genus: Pseudanthias > Species: Pseudanthias taeniatus

References

Field and Field, Reef Fish Of The Red Sea
Khilesh K.V. et al, Checklist of serranid and epinephelid fishes (Perciformes: Serranidae & Epinephelidae) of India, Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation. 2021, Volume 38

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Diving news from around the World

Scientists discover a new whale highway Indonesian scientists have attached a satellite tag onto an endangered pygmy blue whales for the first time, revealing a new feeding site and also a previously undocumented path it takes to the South Antarctic.

Why so many mangrove restoration projects fail Roughly 70% of restoration projects struggle to establish healthy forests. Success depends as much on social and economic conditions as on planting techniques.

Shark-repellent could reform fisheries by curbing bycatch Shark repellent device works by pairing zinc and graphite in seawater. The zinc reacts with the graphite to produce a small electric field in the surrounding seawater. This electric field is detected by the sharks, repelling them from the bait without affecting the fishery's target fish.

Corals in extreme coastal bays show greater resilience to climate stress Corals in these environments have flexible nutritional strategies, often live in symbiosis with more heat-tolerant algae, and host microbial communities that potentially contribute to their stress resistance.

Flagship whales facing climate-driven decline in Australia Once considered a global conservation success story, the southern right whale is now emerging as a warning signal of how climate change is affecting threatened marine life

Research helps lobster hatcheries safeguard genetic diversity Low diversity is bad for the health and resilience. The findings help release programmes adapt to conserve fisheries.

Urban light pollution alters night-time hormones in sharks Artificial light at night is one of the most pervasive environmental effects of urbanisation. Sharks play a key role in maintaining balanced marine ecosystems.

Blind, slow and 500 years old - or are they? How scientists are unravelling the secrets of Greenland sharks Described by one researcher as looking already dead, the enigmatic creatures are one of the least understood species on the planet

Tests uncover unexpected humpback sensitivity to high-frequency noise With better understanding of humpback hearing, we can better protect them and minimise human interference on their lives

The collapse of Atlantic cod in the Oslofjord, Norway Coastal fish populations in temperate regions increasingly experience environmental pressures and dramatic decreases in stock size.

Study Tracks Tiger Sharks to Maui Mating Hub Solved: long-standing global mystery in shark biology: the location and nature of tiger shark mating.

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SCUBA News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. This means we are happy for you to reuse our material for both commercial and non-commercial use as long as you: credit the name of the author, link back to the SCUBA Travel website and say if you have made any changes. Most photos though, are copyright the photographer. Please get in touch for details.

Photo credits: Tim Nicholson, Jill Studholme, Kelly Wong Johnson, Pete McGee/CC BY-NC 4.0, DepositPhotos, divebooker.com

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CONTACTING THE EDITOR
Please send your letters or press releases to:
Jill Studholme
SCUBA News
The Cliff

DE6 2HR
UK
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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)

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