How Does Diving Compare?

What fish did you see while diving in Gorontalo that you don’t see in Thailand? This is what we asked guests from Phuket whom we hosted this week. Besides Gorontalo’s new or endemic species, fish you see here but not there include: the up-side-down hovering Coral shrimpfish (Aeoliscus strigatus), Solor boxfish (Ostracion solorensis), elegant Gilded triggerfish (Xanthichthys auromarginatus), Teardrop butterflyfish (Chaetodon unimaculatus), locally abundant Purple queen anthias (Pseudanthias tuka), and huge Napole an wrasse. Named after its discovery in these equatorial waters, Tomini bristletooth (Ctenochaetus tominiensis) is not found west of Indonesia. Also, not found in Andaman waters is the relatively new Allen’s tubelip wrasse (Labropsis alleni, 1981), a species found in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Micronesia. With Gorontalo edging the most biologically diverse marine environment on earth, those diving here notice the sheer abundance of diversity. However, while as we only found a few small Yellow-edged morays (Gymnothoras flavimarginatus) this week, those diving out of Phuket are sure to see a number of large morays of several species.