Fairy wrasse - who the hell is this?

[Fairy Wrassler1]

I got this guy from an LFS and can't identify him - I usually know my fairies.

They pretty much only had fairies in the shop from Indonesia - C. cyanopleura and C. lubbocki - and a couple of C. cyanopleura ("Glow" fairy) from Monsoon Aquatics in Darwin.

Neither of us knew what this was.


His colours and are kind of like a C. roseafascia, but no dots and definitely no pin tail - and no fishes in the shop from anywhere near roseafacia territory.

Any help with identification will be gratefully received.

 

[JohnL]

Beautiful fish

 

[Fairy Wrassler1]

Beautiful fish

Yeah he is a lovely little fish (she probably - she is only small). Since we didn't know what she was, she cost $50 - I think I did well.

 

[Reefing102]

Closest I could find is Cirrhilabrus aurantidorsalis but the overall coloring is still off

Agreed though. Beautiful fish

 

[Fairy Wrassler1]

That bit of eye shadow he has is really roseafascia - his body is kind of cyanopleura, but the scales and colouration are totally wrong - I wouldn't discount a hybrid of some kind.

Unless he is a garden variety wrasse that I had totally forgotten about

 

[radicalemonpeel]

Looks Cirrhilabrus lubbocki? I see you mentioned that there were some others at the shop, but this species allegedly comes in a few different color variants, I had one years ago that looked almost exactly like that coloring wise... tail shape matches too!

 

[albano]

How is this fish doing? A lot of recently purchased fairy & flasher wrasses have developed a neurological disorder which limits their ability to swim properly.
I lost 8 new wrasses (in QTs) in the past 60 days.

 

[furface]

He’s an absolute Banger ! ! A real beaut ! !