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AKARTA: The Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) has found two rare types of coral reef fish in the sea of Lamalera, East Nusa Tenggara.

The institute’s researchers found yellow-fin fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus flavidorsalis) and swallowtail hawkfish (Cyprinocirrhites polyactis), which only exist in waters surrounding Indonesia and the Philippines, during an expedition in Lamalera.

“Those types of fishes are considered shallow fishes because we found them between an ocean depth of 5 and 7 meters,” LIPI oceanographic researcher Mohammad Adrim said as quoted by kompas.com, adding that both types of fishes could only be found in certain areas of the sea.

Adrim explained that the fishes found by LIPI were as big as the human thumb and first finger, with mixed white and brownish red colors on their bodies.

The two species were the first to be found in Lamalera. Similar types of fishes were also found in Bali.

Adrim of LIPI said that such fishes could only be found in seas with good coral reefs.

However, he said that traces of bombing activities had been found around the coral reef in the Lamalera Sea.

“It’s not serious yet. But the traces showed that people still use environmentally unfriendly ways to catch fishes,” he said.