Purple Fish in Red Sea: Can You Identify?

[daniel tisdal]

Snorkeling in the Red Sea, I noticed fish that were near the edge of my purple-range. They were small--perhaps 3-5 inches. Looking at guides I would say they were angelfish or anthias, but surely there are marine biologists who know exactly what these were. I have see other purple fish, these were unusal in that--even in sunlight--they were sometimes nearly obscured by the pigment.

Can anyone give a likely identification?

 

[berkeman]

Snorkeling in the Red Sea, I noticed fish that were near the edge of my purple-range. They were small--perhaps 3-5 inches. Looking at guides I would say they were angelfish or anthias, but surely there are marine biologists who know exactly what these were. I have see other purple fish, these were unusal in that--even in sunlight--they were sometimes nearly obscured by the pigment.

Can anyone give a likely identification?

Can you find it in this Google Images search on purple tropical fish?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=purple+tropical+fish&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1

.

 

[daniel tisdal]

Yes, I did try that site and others. It's hard to tell one small reef fish from another from photos. I had not seen fish this shade of violet before so I thought they might be unique in terms of pigmentation. That's maybe not the case, so I thought perhaps someone with particular knowledge of those reefs might have an authoritative guess.