Lunatus and Pintail Wrasse

[huskerreef]

After my initial order with Koji I submitted to him my wish list for wrasses, that included Lunatus,Lancelatous, Sanguensis and Pintail. About a month ago Koji contacted me to say that he may be able to collect 3 out the 4 for me and was I interested. OF COURSE!. After a few weeks I get a post on my Facebook with pics saying here are your Lunatus and here is a Pintail. Koji believes the Pintail is a Lunatus/Pintail hybrid. The Lunatus pair is a small male and tiny female. Finding any info on the Lunatus is difficult and there are a lot of different pics out there. From I gather the Lunate caudal fin appears as the male gets bigger. I have talked with Mr. Tanaka questioning the dark phase of the Lunatus and from what he tells me, some will stay more Orange, some will get a lot of black on them and others will get very dark with a stripe down the side. I have alway admired thses fish and am excited to watch them transform before my eyes. Part of the fun with these guys once again is the process of getting them to Nebraska, exchanging emails with Koji and seeing reality of them finally arriving. I am very happy with all that were involved in getting them here from the guy in Hawaii toNori and Koji where the process began. Here are a few pics with more to follow.

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[Jordani]

Amazing!! There are so cool hope you get sanguineus

 

[roktsintst]

Jim, did you get a Lancelatous as well???

 

[huskerreef]

Jim, did you get a Lancelatous as well???

Not this time, he didn't get one.

 

[huskerreef]

The pics dont show the true colors, the pintal has more purple in it than it shows. I will try to get better pics later.

 

[roktsintst]

I thought the Lancelatous and the Pin-Tail were the same fish?

Either way those are incredible man! What a collection you have.

 

[huskerreef]

I thought the Lancelatous and the Pin-Tail were the same fish?

Either way those are incredible man! What a collection you have.

There was the cf Lancelatous that I believe is the Pintail or close relative. But the Lancelatous is different.

 

[huskerreef]

Heres another pic. This was the pic Koji sent me of the fish when in Japan. More closely show colors.

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[roktsintst]

very nice.

 

[bradleyj]

Amazing Jim. Really don't know what to say, but amazing.
Congratulations on some spectacular fish.

 

[roktsintst]

so what is the splendid fairy wrasse...

 

[michael_cb_125]

Very nice...

Thanks for sharing these beauties with us.

~Michael

 

[cee]

Heres another pic. This was the pic Koji sent me of the fish when in Japan. More closely show colors.

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Very nice! I started the hobby many years ago when I lived in Lincoln and it is nice to know there are still new things to be found from the ocean. I'm almost as impressed with the Acropora tenella in the picture but I've been fortunate enough to acquire a colony of that one. Now if only I could find a way to acquire some of the amazing fairy wrasses that have been coming into the hobby over the past few months. Good luck with them.

Dave

 

[huskerreef]

so what is the splendid fairy wrasse...

The Splendid, cf. Lancelatous and Pintail are essentially the same fish but there seems to be some color variation differences. The Japanese Pintail seems to have more purple/pink in them.

 

[lvpd186]

Sweet! Glad they got here safe!

 

[huskerreef]

I'm no photographer, but here a couple pics that more closely look like the way they look under my lighting. Flash and other setting seems to wash out some of the coloring. They are eating well and nobody seems to mind them so I may release them into the tank after dark.

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Lunatus pair

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[Jacob D]

Awesome man. One more thang to be thankful for this year... er make that three things

 

[iamwrasseman]

beautiful fish ,thanks for sharing . if you have a regular digital camera you will get much better pictures color wise and much truer if you put the camera against the tank glass as then you will not be shooting a picture with the flash light refracting through the glass but actually flashing on the fish . you have a nice picture there but your saying it should have more brilliance so give it a try . much harder to get a picture of a fish that close though but it works for corals well .

 

[auem]

glad to hear they are eating so quickly after such long journey...congrats...

 

[huskerreef]

I would also add that I got a nice pair of Balteatus Wrasses from pacificislandaquatics. They were the contact point in Hawaii that recieved my fish from Japan into the USA and they had a real nice pair of the Balteatus so I added them to the box on its way to Nebraska. They are a very nice looking fish and also eating and doing well.