About ten years ago, aquarium fish dealers in Bangkok noticed a fish in the genus Scleropages with a distinctive pattern of maze-like markings. Different individual fish of the same species have scales with different patterns.
Scleropages was known from the Malaysian part of the Malay Penninsula, but was previously unknown from the Myanmar part of the peninsula.
Tyson Roberts, STRI research associate who has spent most of his career studying fish in Asian and South American rivers, named the species inscriptus, the Latin word meaning “inscribed” for the markings. The markings only extend to most of the scales in large individuals. Small specimens are unmarked. Nothing like this color pattern has been reported in any other bony fish.
According to Peter Raven, conservationist and director of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Tyson Roberts is “leaving a legacy by sampling the tropical freshwater fish fauna just at a time when I’m afraid that it is likely to nosedive.”
Roberts, Tyson R., Scleropages inscriptus, a new fish species from the Tananthayi or Tenasserim River basin, Malay Peninsula of Myanmar (Osteoglossidae: Osteoglossiformes). Aqua 18 (2):113-118.
