New Charon’s Pygmygoby Species Discovered in the Red Sea

November 4, 2026 Rachel Kim – Technology Editor Technology

Charons Pygmygoby Discovered at Walih Island

Viktor Nunes Peinemann and a team of researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have described a new species of fish from the northern Red Sea, found at the entrance to a cave on a steep reef slope, Newswise reported. The fish, named Charons pygmygoby or Trimma charon, measures 12 and 17 millimetres across its two known specimens.

The Tech TL;DR:

  • Researchers discovered Charons pygmygoby at 30 metres depth at Walih Island in May 2023.
  • The species features a broad orange-red stripe, golden spots on its tail, and an unusual four-part eye.
  • The description was published in the open access journal ZooKeys by a team from KAUST and the Senckenberg Research Institute.

Golden Spots Inspire Mythological Species Name

The species name draws inspiration from Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology who carried the dead across the river into the underworld where bodies were traditionally buried with a coin for the crossing. “One of the most striking features of the new species is the golden spots scattered across its tail fin,” Peinemann said. “They cover most of the fin and resemble small gold coins.”

The naming convention also reflects the habitat where the fish likely resides. The team suspects the species is more common on deep mesophotic reefs below 30 metres that remain largely unexplored. “These dark, deeper, unexplored reefs could be viewed as a kind of underworld beneath the shallow, well-lit, and better studied reefs most of us are more familiar with,” Peinemann said.

Single Encounter at Walih Island

The research team collected the specimens in May 2023 at Walih Island at a depth of 30 metres, which marked the maximum depth of their scientific diving operations. Despite subsequent searches in similar habitats, the species has not been observed again. “So far, the entire species is known from only a single encounter and two specimens,” Peinemann said, noting that the collected fish may represent only the shallow edge of a population living at greater depths.

Genetic data indicate that the new species is closely related to the pallid pygmygoby, Trimma anaima, which ranges from East Africa to the Pacific but has never been recorded in the Red Sea. “While one species seems to have spread across much of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, its closest relative appears to have stayed in the Red Sea and evolved separately for millions of years,” Peinemann said.

Identification Key for Red Sea Trimma

The discovery brings the total number of known Trimma species in the Red Sea to 11, establishing it as the most species-rich goby genus in the region with at least nine endemic species. The published study includes an illustrated identification key covering all 11 species alongside photographs and field notes detailing their local habitats.

“Knowing which species are present, how to accurately identify them, and where they live, is the most foundational step to building a stronger understanding of these species and ecosystems,” Peinemann said. Matthew D. Tietbohl Talas and Michael L. Berumen of KAUST co-authored the study alongside Sergey V. Bogorodsky of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt in Germany.

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