What exactly is the “One Spot Foxface?”

[Zionas]

It seems that there isn’t even a single variant of the so-called “One Spot Foxface.” Some have that’s one dark spot, others have a pattern where 2 spots are joined together, others have more of a fainter, dark patch of sorts that come and go. And yet there are even specimens where as they age the spot / s / blotches either appear or disappear.

Is the “One Spot” really a legit species separate from the Lo? Does it really get any smaller than the Lo? (It says max size of 8” on FishBase for the One Spot, and 10” for the Lo but it says “Common Length” of the Lo is the same- 8”).

Furthermore could the relationship between some other species like the Bicolor and Magnificent also be closer than expected?

 

[Zionas]

Images of what I’m talking about.....

Some have this one spot, others have this black patch, and others have these very faint patches.

 

[mort]

They will have all had common ancestry, so the answer depends on how you define a "species" and how recently the evolutionary tree forked. It could be that they relitively recently diverged from one another.

Don't get to hung up on size. The size of fish can vary across a population of fish due to various reasons but the main one being nutrient availability.
As an example fish in the nutrient rich red sea are often different from the same species elsewhere.

 

[Zionas]

Speaking of the Red Sea the late Bob Fenner had a joke about it: God created the world in 6 days, on the 7th day he had some leftover paint and his angels were careless and kicked some of it into the Red Sea.

Yeah, I would love to see more fish from there.