This film shows the colorful reefs of Fiji. Here, the multitudinous fish can be seen in two colors. What they are, however, are the males and females of the same species, the Scalefin Anthias, Pseudanthias squamipinnis. The males are the purple fish and the females are orange.

Although it may be hard to believe, the anthias are members of the grouper family (Serranidae). Although the member of the family featured here is small, this diverse family contains some of the largest of all the bony fishes. The anthias belong to the subfamily Anthiinae. Most of the members of this subgroup are small, colorful reef-dwellers that form groups or shoals over the reef where they capture minute food items carried by ocean currents. The subfamily includes 17 genera and approximately 170 species.

The most common group in the subfamily is the genus Pseudanthias (with about 60 species). The species shown here is a member of this genus. The genus name translates as “false” anthias (anthias means fish, so actually it is “false fish”).

The first member of the subfamily Anthiinae to be described was a resident of the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean. This species, known as the common anthias (Anthias anthias), was described in 1758 by the “Father of Taxonomy” Carl Linnaeus. In subsequent years, more fish were described in this subfamily and many were placed in the genus Anthias. It was not until 1981 that ichthyologists decided that many of the species placed in the genus Anthias should be moved to a genus originally described in the 1850’s by Dutch ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker. This was the genus Pseudanthias. By this time, the common name anthias was being used by researchers/writers for many members of the subfamily Anthiinae, including members of the genus Pseudanthias.