Fairy wrasse ID plz

[Depths_of_blue]

sold to me as a Scott's fairy, though it looks nothing like one. I'm thinking c. temminckii but not sure???

any help appreciated

 

[LemonLemon]

Cirrhilabrus punctatus.

 

[LemonLemon]

easily confused with the temmincki wrasses because it is in the same complex.

in fact, temminkii has 3 un-id wrasses that all look identical.

c. temminckii 1, 2 and 3.

this one is punctatus because of the yellowband on the dorsal region

 

[Overboard]

Interesting.

A beautiful C. punctatus variation then. I have only seen them this nice in the books. The C. punctatus I had years ago was drab by comparison. It was more of a green/grey.

Did you get it at a LFS?

 

[Depths_of_blue]

okie dokie, thanks for the ID Lemon
yep he is from a LFS, I only went to 'look' and couldnt go past such a beautiful fairy So far so good, bit of competition with my laboute's as they are both male and the same size but he is out and feeding voraciously

 

[bradleyj]

Very nice, but in time he most likely will lose some of his brilliant color. They need ladies to stay looking good. LOL

 

[iamwrasseman]

certainly not a scotts and lemon usually is on the ball ,its tough for me with the color variatioin so i have to sit on the sideline for this one but my $ is with lemon

 

[Depths_of_blue]

I think they actually had some females there listed as female Scott's (he was listed as a male scott's) so i may get him a companion

 

[Depths_of_blue]

couldnt resist a pic of him showing off

 

[LemonLemon]

iamwrasseman thanks for the assurance. but when it comes to very similar looking fairy wrasses like these, it's hard to tell from the photo provided.

ok the newest photo posted does not look like a punctatus anymore. depths of blue, your original guess of a temminckii is correct.

now it looks like a one of the temminckii complex wrasse. not the true temminckii, but one of it's closely related complex members.

here's a picture of the "temminckii" by Dr. H. tanaka and one other from the net. i've also added the original pic for comparison.

 

[LemonLemon]

This is one of the forms of Cirrhilabrus punctatus and you can see why it's easily confused with the original picture posted by depths of blue.

 

[LemonLemon]

but usually punctatus appear in the more drab and less colourful form. i've seen both forms of punctatus before and i've kept the more colourful one which eventually turned into this ugly brown one.

so maybe the colourful one is a terminal phase which eventually loses colour to the drab one? i'm not an expert and i don't know unfortunately.

 

[LemonLemon]

the head of depths of blue specimen shows two horizontal eye bars which turns blue when excited. punctatus does not have this eye bar, and only temminckii has it.

when excited, the wrasse posted exhibits 2 blue lines on the body, characteristic of temminckii wrasses which often lead to their common name, blue line fairy wrasse (in most asian countries, that is their common name)

so after seeing the photos more closely again, i'll say that my initial speculation that it is C.punctatus is wrong and it is a member of the temminckii complex.

Cirrhilabrus cf. temminckii. since there's only one real temminckii and the rest are just related complexes, none of them have valid scientific names so for now they shall be labelled as C. cf. temminckii.

but whatever the fish is, it's nice and i hope you enjoy it!

 

[Overboard]

My C. punctatus looked just like the last picture. The were no females with him (just a few different male fairy wrasses), so perhaps a female would have enhanced his color.

I see C. punctatus from Fiji for sale online often (but not WYSIWYG). I wonder if they would be colorful if paired with a female.

Great thread.

Thanks,
Mark

but usually punctatus appear in the more drab and less colourful form. i've seen both forms of punctatus before and i've kept the more colourful one which eventually turned into this ugly brown one.

so maybe the colourful one is a terminal phase which eventually loses colour to the drab one? i'm not an expert and i don't know unfortunately.

 

[Depths_of_blue]

wow so much info, thanks lemon I made my original guess of temminckii from photos in R. Kuiter's wrasse book, it was one of the C.cf temminckii i was looking at. Hopefully someone will give him his own name one day lol, but for now Im just enjoying watching him

 

[iamwrasseman]

Lemon with my colorblindness sometimes i have rely on other experts like you and see you got that one dead on ! koolest
with the color variations and morphs sometimes it difficult to really be sure and i didnt have a clue ?

 

[bradleyj]

Lemon, when will you be starting your internship with Dr Tanaka? That would be a dream come true wouldn't it? You know your wrasses, that's for sure. Thank you for all the help you give us.

 

[pacislandaqua]

Aussie C. punctatus are beautiful. More like the one posted by lemon. Im not sure what Fijian ones look like though.

 

[LemonLemon]

aussy and PNG "punctatus" could be Cirrhilabrus beauperryi, a recently described wrasse which was often confused with punctatus.

they are usually blue/purple ventrally and have a greenish to ocre coloured top. i have a male specimen and it behaves much like punctatus, but mine is docile and very well behaved.

here's a pic attached below.

bradley and iamwrasseman, thanks for the compliments but i'm no where near expert level yet. i just like cirrhilabrus and paracheilinus alot and can ID them pretty well. but i do make mistakes sometimes especially if they are very closely related. case in point, the temminckii complex.

females are also super hard or impossible to distinguish based on physical appearance. marjorie, lubbocki, cenderawasih, walindi, flavidorsalis etc have very similar looking females.

rubriventralis complex have females that look almost identical too.

having kuiter's new big wrasse bible certainly helps alot.

there are many rare wrasses i hope to see and own one day but well...those are just dreams. maybe when i grow older and retire i could collect my own. nusalim, waltoni flashers are some of the newest discovery in raja ampat and so far unobtainable.

 

[LemonLemon]

Lemon, when will you be starting your internship with Dr Tanaka? That would be a dream come true wouldn't it? You know your wrasses, that's for sure. Thank you for all the help you give us.

yes that would be really cool and awesome.

wrasses have always been my fav group of fishes esp flashers and fairies.

i've taken a liking to angels and butterflies too and i have learnt alot from experts here like John copps and others. and i enjoy reading through the archives.