Scuba divers discover 'psychedelic' fish in Indonesia

A funky, psychedelic fish that bounces chaotically on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species.

The froglike fish, which has swirly tan and peach stripes that extend from its eyes to its tail, was discovered by scuba divers a year ago in shallow waters off eastern Indonesia.

Tour operators contacted Ted Pietsch, the lead author of a paper in this month’s edition of Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, classifying it as a new species.

Mr Pietsch, a professor at the University of Washington, named the fish “psychedelica”.

He said it had several behavioural traits not previously known in fish, including that it hops rather than swims.