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ALL THAT GLITTERS THE HIDDEN LIVES OF GOLDIES
Discovering the dazzling lives and social secrets of South Africa’s charismatic goldies.
Text & IMAGES by Adrian Pearton
Anyone who has dived on the east coast of South Africa and Mozambique will be familiar with these little orange and red jewels of the reef. Internationally they are colloquially known as anthias or basslets, but here in South Africa we call them goldies.
Most goldies belong to the closely related genera Pseudanthias and Nemanthias. Until very recently, these were placed in the family Serranidae; the groupers or rockcods. However, after recent molecular analysis by researchers, this family was split into different families. The large groupers, including Potato Bass and Brindle Bass, have now been placed in Epinephelidae, and goldies are in their own family called Anthiadidae.
Members of this family are diurnal zooplankton feeders. They spend most of the day hovering in large groups close to the reef, facing the current which brings their tiny prey. As goldies themselves are a common prey item for larger fish, they tend to stay close to cover and will dart into it when a predator is near.
Goldies have a complex social structure. They are protogynous hermaphrodites, which means that all individuals begin life as females. Goldies can form huge shoals of over a thousand individuals, and these shoals are subdivided into harems. A harem consists of a dominant male, a number of females (on average about 8 females per male) and sometimes a small number of sub-dominant males. The dominant male is the largest and most brightly coloured member of the harem, and is usually the only male that will breed with the females. The sub-dominant males are less brightly coloured but have a similar colour pattern to the dominant male. When a dominant male dies, a power struggle often ensues. The most dominant female will receive a surge of testosterone and gradually transition into a male. While this is happening they may even challenge one of the sub-dominant males for the right to be the dominant male.
In South Africa we have a number of species of goldies, but only four are regularly seen within recreational SCUBA diving limits. The Yellowback Anthias (Pseudanthias evansi) is a shallow water species but is only occasionally seen on a few reefs at Sodwana Bay, and becomes more common north of central Mozambique. The Redstripe Anthias (Pseudanthias gibbosus) is occasionally seen at 35-40m deep but is generally found below 40m.
Sea Goldie (Pseudanthias squamipinnis)
This is the ubiquitous goldie in most of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. It is wide ranging along the east coast of South Africa, with strays even being found as far south as Knysna. The species occurs from rockpools down to at least 40m deep. It is an abundant species in many habitats, though it prefers high profile structures such as wrecks and reef pinnacles.
Females are a solid orange colour with a purple eye and purple streak on the cheek. Males are a purplish-red colour with a patch of yellow on the sides. Both males and females have a filament on front portion of their dorsal fin, though it is longer in males.
Silverstreak Goldie (Pseudanthias cooperi)
This is also a very common species in South Africa, though it tends to be more common on reefs below 20m deep. The species frequently forms shoals with the above species. Females are a uniform deep red with a pale white band below the eye. Males are silvery white on the sides and underside with vivid red fins with silver edges.
Harlequin Goldie (Pseudanthias connelli)
This is the most unique South African species. The Harlequin Goldie is endemic to Southern Africa, being found from Zavora south to Margate. The species was named in 1986 from specimens collected by the late Dr. Allan Connell. These first specimens were found on the Cooper Light Wreck, a mysterious unidentified wreck off Treasure Beach on Durban Bluff. This is still the best place to see this beautiful species, though the wreck is infamous for high current and low visibility, so it cannot often be safely dived.
Females are mostly plain orange and are superficially similar to female Sea Goldies. The differences are their paler underside and higher body shape. Males cannot be confused with any other species. They have a pink or deep orange body with a deeper red blotch towards the head shot through with a white stripe above the eye.
For reasons unknown the species prefers wrecks and small, deep isolated reefs. Besides the aforementioned Cooper Light wreck, the species is also frequently seen on the wrecks of the Produce and the Nebo, close to Aliwal Shoal.
Threadfin Goldie (Nemanthias carberryi)
This is a species that many people confuse with the Sea Goldie. It occurs from Aliwal Shoal northwards. The females are slightly more slender than Sea Goldie females and have more of a pinkish tone. The males are easier to identify because they have a long streamer on the lower part of the caudal (tail) fin. The males are very colourful with yellow and orange sides, a red dorsal fin and a bluish underside.
This species is commonly found shoaling with other species of goldies.
Photographing Goldies
When I’m having a slow photography dive without many unusual subjects I will often gravitate towards the ever-present goldies. They are a beautiful and charismatic subject for both macro and wide angle photography. Their vivid warm colours contrast wonderfully with both blue and black backgrounds. Reds and oranges are the first colours to disappear with depth, so artificial light such as a strobe or video light will be required to display their colour accurately in photos and video if they are below 10m deep.
They are rather swift and skittish, so it can be somewhat of a hit-and-miss affair to capture goldies with a macro lens. The method I use is to set the camera focus to manual then focus on a stationary object at approximately the same distance away as I want the fish to be to get it in frame. Then it is just a matter of either waiting for the subject to move into the frame on its own accord or moving the camera backwards and forwards to get the subject in focus. I find this method works more reliably than using autofocus with fast, erratically moving subjects.
The most beautiful goldies in a shoal tend to be the large, dominant males which have the longest fins and most intense colours. When they are displaying to females or chasing off rival males they will open their fins wide and flash even brighter colours.
I will generally use a smaller aperture (f14-f22) for extra depth of field which increases the chances of getting the important parts of the subject in focus when shooting fish portraits.
I hope this article encourages divers to spend a little bit of bottom time having a closer look at these fascinating little fish. While they may not be as blatantly awe-inspiring as a large shark or manta, their complex social lives and vivid colours more than make up for their diminutive size!
