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There’s a new fish species in Alabama, but you can’t see it.
In fact, as far as scientists know, this fish only lives in one cave in north Alabama that is closed to the public.
“There were all these little clues that there may be something new here,” said Matthew Niemiller, a professor at the University of Alabama Huntsville.
Earlier this month, Niemiller published a paper announcing the discovery of a new species of cavefish, the Demon Cavefish, or Demogorgonichthys arcanus. The fish was discovered in Bobcat Cave on the grounds of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.
Fans of the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things” may recognize the first part of the fish’s scientific name. The Demogorgon is a demon from the underworld rooted in Greek mythology and best known for terrorizing the town of Hawkins in that TV series.
“We were trying to think of something from the underworld, something that was hidden,” Niemiller said. “We’re ‘Stranger Things’ fans, we all played ‘Dungeons & Dragons.’”
In February 2025, Niemiller was on a field expedition in Bobcat Cave with his team when he slipped and fell into a pool in the cave. The fall disturbed a fish, which then swam away.
Before it disappeared, though, Niemiller was able to take some photos and videos. At first, he thought it was a Southern Cavefish, a fish that lives in the limestone caves of North Alabama and in the underground waters of the Coosa River system, according to the department of conservation and natural resources.
On closer inspection, Niemiller was able to see that this fish looked different from the Southern Cavefish. For one, the Demon Cavefish has a hump behind its head and a different head shape than the Southern Cavefish. In addition, the Demon Cavefish doesn’t have pigmented scales and is almost albino - lacking pigmentation.
Along with Jonathan Armbruster at Auburn University and Pamela Hart at the University of Alabama (both of whom are co-authors on the paper), Niemiller’s lab began to study this new specimen of fish. Eventually, the scientists were able to determine that not only was the Demon Cavefish a new species, but a new genus, which is a classification ranking above species.
“It always surprises me when things like this show up, especially in a cave that’s been explored so much,” Armbruster, who works at the Auburn Museum of Natural History, said. “It’s indicative of a broader cavefish ecosystem we don’t really understand yet.”
Once the scientists discovered the new species, they quickly realized it had been “hiding in plain sight,” Niemiller said. His team returned to Bobcat Cave to survey the fish and found that half of the fish they saw were Demon Cavefish, he said.
There’s still not a lot known about the Demon Cavefish. Niemiller said he hopes to learn more in future surveys. Scientists don’t know yet if the cavefish lives in other caves in the area, or perhaps a lower aquifer underneath the cave system.
Cave species tend to be mysterious even to the scientists who study them. Their habitat is not very accessible to humans, and even less so if they live in a lower aquifer. With no light, caves don’t have a lot of plants that form the base of a food chain. As a result, cave ecosystems have very small food webs, Niemiller said.
But that doesn’t mean elusive cave species, like the Demon Cavefish, the Southern Cavefish, the Alabama Cavefish or the Alabama Cave Shrimp are not worth studying. These fish live in the water we use. Their health is an indicator of the quality of the water, Niemiller said.
For Armbruster, it’s a reminder of how much humans still don’t know about the natural world.
“Alabama is tops for freshwater fisheries in the United States,” he said. “It’s a place where we’re still making new discoveries…It’s something that’s in process. We’ve made progress, but it’s still far from done.”
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