Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis

[Delphinus]

Sold to me as a "red fairy wrasse." Acquired from Big Al's in November. The more I find out about fairy wrasses and see more of them, the more I love them.

Been wanting to share a photo of this guy forever but he is insanely difficult to get a shot of. He'll make an awesome pose for the camera, but he won't hold it for more than 2 seconds. Unfortunately my digital camera seems to take way more than 2 seconds after depressing the shutter button to think about the exposure and commit to it. Of course by then I'm taking a picture of empty water most of the time. The following shots, as sad as they might be, are the best out of about 50 or 60 attempts. He has really pretty fins when he shows them but you have to be at the right place at the right time to get a picture of them.

Anyhow I am fairly certain that he is Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis. Other common names include "social wrasse," "red parrot fairy wrasse," "dwarf parrot wrasse," and "longfin fairy wrasse."

The second shot below is the closest red that he is in person. It's really neat to see different colours show up though, depending on his mood, or whatever. Some times even his underside is red making him one big crimson spectacle. Other times the blue/green irridescent dots are really prominent. Never dull...

[Canadian Man]

Gorgeous Tony!

[LostMind]

wow, I am pretty jealous

I want one - thats pretty!

[BCOrchidGuy]

I had 3 fairy wrasses in my 90, they were beautiful fish but they did get big quick. They didn't bother any of the other fish, good community tank fish, lots of colour and very active.

Nice pictures.

Doug

[Delphinus]

Which ones did you have, Doug?

I'm thinking I might look for a C. solorensis or a C. lineatus after I move and set up a larger tank. I'm amazed how pretty these fish are.

If I have my ID correct on the one shown here, he should top out at around 3" (according to Fenner). Right now he's about 2-3/4" or thereabouts, maybe 3" already, hard to say.

He's a very outgoing fish, very sociable unless startled. He can completely disappear into the rockwork, emerging at some random point somewhere else. Sometimes he sleeps in crevasses, other times he completely buries himself in the sand. I saw him bury himself once just before the lights turned off, he just literally swam into the sand like it was nothing.

[Buccaneer]

How is he with your sixline Tony ? ... any conflicts at all ?

Cheers

[Delphinus]

They're not in the same tank, so I don't know, sorry..

FWIW, he gets along fine with the yellow tang and ocellaris though. The yellow tang was a little put off at first ("Hey! that's MY nori!") but other than a few chest-thumping displays at first (well .. the fish equivalent of course), there was no real aggression and they seem to get along just fine now.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Tony I had the Blue sided fairy wrasse, Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura
http://fins.actwin.com/species/index.php?t=9&i=416


Doug

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Tony I had the Blue sided fairy wrasse, Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura
http://fins.actwin.com/species/index.php?t=9&i=416

Doug,

We also have two blue sided fairy wrasses. Have already seen the link you have provided, but still cannot decide whether we have two males or two females. Both have the same colouration and are slightly less than 3" long, though in the past month, one has gotten slightly bigger than the other and appears to be very dominant over the other.

Here are some pics. What do you think, male or female:

[BCOrchidGuy]

Beverly I'd say you've got two females, the males are mainly blue around the head area, beautiful fish aren't they.

Doug