yikai

ahh yes. that's exactly why all of them are so commonly mistaken. especially 1 2 and 3

yes correct. actually i made a thread with all the fairy wrasses of the world in it and i even pinned it up. so it's a very easy game and all the answers are inside. #3 - Cirrhilabrus joanallenae. very rare fairy wrasse, and differs from rubriventralis by having a pure black ventral fin instead. was named after the describer's wife, Joan. #4 - Cirrhilabrus morrisoni. Very rare in the trade and from northwestern Australia. also a member of the rubriventralis complex. since all the answers can be found from my wrasse thread, i'll just give the identity. no kick in letting you guys find I'll start a new game soon. #1 - is an undescribed species from Kenya. It's often called the "Kwazulu fairy wrasse". It has no scientific name yet. The defining characteristic is it's brilliant golden tail which differs from the blue tail of rubriventralis and joanallenae. LCK bring this in a few times before but all were females. #5 - this is also another undescribed one from Bali. It has no scientific name but resembles morrisoni, thus, it's tentative name now is "Cirrhilabrus cf. morrisoni" meaning confer to morrisoni. It's from Bali and i've yet to seen it.

yes. #2 - Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis. (Social or Longfin fairy wrasse) #6 - Cirrhilabrus naokoae. (Naoko's fairy wrasse. Named and described by my friend, Dr. Hiroyuki Tanaka and other scientisits. He named it after his wife, Naoko) #1 - anyone can guess? it's from africa #3 - how about this? #4 - how about this rare one? It's from Australia #5 - this one is a tough cookie from Bali.

Let's hope my hardwork pays off and you all will get to see these 4 fishes soon (: HOPE.

haha nice one. i like your style.

terryz - no u cannot answer! give others a chance. iskay - the bottom right? haha. what's the name? and can u guess the rest?

NICE! monocentris japonicus! very very uncommon and super beautiful fish!

are the bars touching each other? if they are i probably did not see then yes then those will be grade B perculas.

yellow coco worm. nice but super rare.

thanks for your reply bro mopiko. as i've said before reefing is a very grey area in terms of the ethics commitee. what is considered ethical and not ethical? is catching fish from the wild ethical? is selective breeding of high grade clownfish ethical? is selective breeding of anything even ethical? keeping the good ones, culling the unwanted ones. is keeping moorish idols, achilles tang, and many other sensitive fish ethical? if not for the marine aquarium trade, many species of fish will not have been discovered and valuable information to science will be lost. some fishes are only discovered via aquarium trade. everything in this hobby is questionable. but then again, so is many other hobbies when it comes to the "pet trade" it also boils down to what you define as ethical. sure catching fish from the ocean on a whole is not ethical. but since it's already been done, does giving them a good home where they can grow and live happily make it ethical? or is it still unethical ethics is viewed at each step along the way. not as a whole. if ethics is viewed as a big picture, then the human race is flawed in many ways. but by viewing it in steps, we can make the best of the situation and do something in an ethical way. i hope you get what i'm trying to say if it sounds confusing. anyway i can't close this thread because the forum rules are not really broken. yes i see flaming, but more of a "healthy" discussion but no cursing and hurling of vulgarities. i will however, close this thread if the thread starter (desideria) wants the thread to be closed. i hope no one is seriously offended in this "debate" once in awhile a good debate topic will pop up and it's good for members to voice out their opinions. but hopefully it does not go too overboard..

looks like normal perculas to me..

i'll give clues picture 1 and 5 do not have scientific names. common names only. but the rest should be easier

Sorry since i was a spoiler for the previous ID game. i'll make another one. here's 6 species of very similar fairy wrasses from the rubiventralis complex. how many of them can u identify correctly?

sorry. next time i won't participate in ID games anymore lol. the genus zebrasoma is referred to as the "sailfin tang" but the desjardini and veliferum is the sailfin of the "sailfin tangs". the rest are not referred to as sailfin tangs in real life. rather, yellow tang, purple tang etc etc.

one of my fav. this is the dwarf wrasse. scientific name i forgot.

isn't this extremely gorgeous? my favourite fairy wrasse. cirrhilabrus marjorie. endemic to Fiji, named after bruce carlson's wife, marj.

v nice blenny but i forgot it's scientific name..

this is also another rare pomacentrid. it's stegasus baldwini from the clipperton islands.

this may look like the normal cheap common chromis, but it's not. it;s one of the rarest chromis in the world. it's endemic to only ONE island in the marquesas, the island of Fatu Hiva. It's chromis fatuhivae

there's only 2 species of "sailfin tang" Zebrasoma dejardinii and Zebrasoma veliferum. the more commonly seen Z. veliferum is mainly found in the Pacific ocean, very widespread. it is replaced by desjardin (pronounced day-har-din, not des-jar-din) sailfin tang from the Indian ocean. as with most similarly evolved fishes, some scientist classify desjardin and veliferum to be the same species, just geographical variation. scientisits that lump similar species are called "lumpers". Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura and C. lyukyuensis is also another case. but scientisits that split all these little differences up are called "splitters". in science there are always lumpers and splitters. i like to split and regard Z. veliferum and desjardinii to be separate valid species. after all their range hardly overlap and one is replaced by the other in different oceans. replacement species are very common amongst similar looking fishes and are often discussed in taxonomy wether they are same or different sp.

agreed. currently there are no undescribed species of tangs.

haha!

kole eye (Strigosus) can be found in Johnston atoll too. some sources say australia too but probably false.

to each his own and i have no problem with asking questions too. asking questions is better than not asking. of course we can be pro-active too but that's different. it takes commitment to be very pro-active but many people are too busy with work, family everything. reefing is only a hobby. and i understand. perhaps i'm too free and too obsessed already. that's why i do so much research and expect others to do the same. (i apologize if i do come across like that) some things are also learnt faster by asking questions. and i'm v happy everytime i receive a PM with a genuine question and the willingness to learn. feels good to help others. but the general idea is that learning is very easy. either by research or by asking. whiever way you choose to do it is fine. just preference. i'll be interested to see how this thompson plaza thing turn out eventually.