A short-rod shaped, non-motile and Gram-negative strain, designated as DT23-4(T), was isolated from a dotriacontane-degrading bacterial consortium, enriched in the surface seawater of the Indian Ocean. To delineate its taxonomic position, strain DT23-4(T) was subjected to polyphasic characterization. Strain DT23-4(T) can grow at temperatures from 10 to 41 °C, in the range of pH 6-10 and at salinities from 0 to 18 % (w/v). It is positive for denitrification, oxidase and catalase, but negative for gelatin hydrolysis and indole production. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain DT23-4(T) affiliates to the genus Thioclava, sharing high sequence similarity to Thioclava dalianensis DLFJ1-1(T) (98.2 %), Thioclava atlantica 13D2W-2(T) (96.8 %), Thioclava pacifica TL 2(T) (95.9 %) and less than 95.7 % with other species of the family Rhodobacteraceae. The digital DNA:DNA hybridization (dDDH) pairwise values between strain DT23-4(T) and T. dalianensis DLFJ1-1(T), T. atlantica 13D2W-2(T) and T. pacifica TL 2(T) were 21.5 ± 2.3, 20.6 ± 2.3 and 20.9 ± 2.3 %, respectively. Similarly, the average nucleotide identity values between strain DT23-4(T) and these three type strains were 78.0, 77.1 and 77.3 %, respectively. The principal fatty acid was identified as Summed Feature 8 (C18:1 ω7c/ω6c) (81.9 %). The quinone of strain DT23-4(T) was identified as Q10 (100 %). The polar lipids of strain DT23-4(T) were found to contain phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, two glycolipids and four phospholipids. The genomic DNA G+C content was determined to be 60.3 mol%. On the basis of genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analyses, strain DT23-4(T) can be concluded to represent a novel species of the genus Thioclava, for which the name Thioclava indica sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain DT23-4(T) (= MCCC 1A00513(T) = LMG 27698(T) = KCTC 33533(T)).