Scientists discover colorful, new fish that lives in the ocean's "twilight zone"

A new, colorful fish species has been discovered in the Maldives' twilight zone coral reefs.

The new species was named the rose-veiled fairy wrasse, and its scientific name, Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa, honors the national flower of the Maldives, which is the pink rose. The word "finifenmaa," means "rose" in the local language, Dhivehi.

The twilight zone reefs of the Maldives can be 160 to 500 feet beneath the ocean's surface.

"It's a really different environment: It's darker (because the water functions as a filter absorbing light, so the deeper you go, the darker it gets) and colder," Luiz Rocha, the California Academy of Sciences curator of ichthyology, told CNN. "There are much fewer corals, and almost no algae (because of the lack of light), so the fish community is very different and most fish at this depth feed on plankton (tiny marine invertebrates that live in the water column)."