The Red Sea leopard wrasse has long been considered a subspecies of the common and widespread splendid leopard wrasse, Macropharyngodon bipartitus. A recent analysis by the fish man himself John Randall revealed that these two fishes are different enough to warrant being separate species, and the difference is not as subtle as you’d think. Like Read More

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CIrrhilabrus lanceolatus, the pin tail fairy wrasse is one of the most exquisite wrasses in the sea (not to be confused with Cirrhlabrus exquisitus). Certain forms of the pin tail fairy wrasse are available from time to time, and while the rose-striped fairy wrasse C. roseofasciatus is a close stand-in, nothing compares to the super-male, full Read More

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Suezichthys is a genus of wrasses which now enjoys another species with the description of Suezichthys rosenblatti. Discovered living around miniscule oceanic islands off the coast of Chile, Suezichthys rosenblatti is currently only known from the type specimens collected around Isla San Felix, Isla Juan Fernandez and Isla San Ambrosio in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. In the Read More

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There’s a teeny tiny little wrasse living in the Gulf of Mexico called Halichoeres socialis which is all but unknown in the aquarium world, and it may not last long of this world at all. Living over a tiny 10 square kilometer of reef called Pelican Cays in Belize, the social wrasse is threatened with extinction Read More

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A new species of Terelabrus has just been captured and hauled up from the deep reef and it looks to be acclimating well to aquarium life. The never before seen Terelabrus sp. Japan was collected at a depth of 170 meters (550 feet) by Deep Sea Challengers using the same deep diving submersible that they Read More

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The Pseudocoris genus contains some of the most beautiful wrasses but this little known group goes all but eclipsed by the Paracheilinus flasher and Cirrhilabrus fairy wrasses. However, with aquarists increasingly broadening their scope of rare and unusual reef wrasses, the Pseudocoris are increasingly coming into focus. One perfect example is this almost completely unknown species which Read More

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The candy cane hogfish of the Terelabrus genus are curious and colorful reef fish with the potential to be an awesome reef aquarium inhabitant. With a body shape and size fallin halfway between a wrasse and a hogfish, the candy hogfish is small in stature but makes up for it with great personality and a very interesting pattern. Red Read More

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Coris cuvieri, the African Coris is one of many wrasse species which goes all but overlooked in favor of the common coris wrasse, Coris gaimard. Although we occasionally see the African Formosa Coris in the US, the other African Coris (Coris cuvieri) from Indian Ocean is almost never seen outside fo Europe and Asia.  This Indian Ocean resident is Read More

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Despite its original $300+ price tag Rudie Kuiter managed to sell quite a few copies of his fabulous compendium on wrasses, Labridae Fishes. The hardbound work of devotion to wrasses has over 400 A4 pages covering more than 500 species of wrasses, making it a very heavy and expensive print job for self publishing. In Read More

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Once upon a time, Scott’s fairy wrasses from the Cook Islands was THE wrasse to have; it was the bee’s knees of fairy wrasses and it was pretty much the only form of Cirrhilarbus scottorum that you could get in the first place. Made famous by the pioneering aquarium fish photography of Scott Michael, Scott’s fairy Read More

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