yikai

exquisite variant 4. this one is very common in indonesia shipments. dull green with intense red fins. the pectoral fins are clear and outlined in red. however, the colours will fade very badly. have kept before and few other bros have shared their experience with me. the colours are not very nice to begin with anyway...

Exquisite variant 3. May be restricted to japan only. notice the black patch on the rear end of the dorsal fin. (flashing male. real colours not known to me)

Exquisite variant 2. from the fijian regions. this may be the vanuatu one as well. (pic shows a male flashing, so actual colours are not like that)

This is exquisite variant 1. This one is currently confined to maldives and i've seen it here a few times. but very very rare. i have owned one before. but never kept it long enough to develop it's awesome orange tail. bro greencloud has one. not sure if it's still alive with him. gorgeous he has taken a video of it flashing. saw it in real life before and it was gorgeous. the colours are awesome. look at the tail. when flashing, the tail turns bright orange/yellow. (top and bottom left photos show males flashing, so actual colours are the ones on the bottom right.)

aloysius, here are the 5 variants of exquisite wrasses currently recognised. DNA analysis may reveal that the variants are actually different species instead of variants. but for now they are known as exquisite wrasse 1, 2, 3 and 4. Here is the real exquisite wrasse from africa. The pink face is stunning and this is my favourite amongst the 5.

they flash when they get excited. bascially, a harem of females, another male, other wrasse, other fish, reflection etc will naturally excite it. and thus, invoke flashing behaviour. It's hard to say what will invoke flashing. but the best bet will be other wrasses and females. other wrasses in the same genus is even better. getting other flasher wrasses will also cause flashing. defending territories and chasing will also produce results when flashing, the wrasse will swim at super high speed so a hood or cover is needed to prevent jumping. Exquisite fairy wrasse is a highly variable species. there are 5 known variants of exquisite wrasse ranging from indonesia, australia, fiji, vanuatu etc. all 5 variants from different locations will exhibit different colouration. my personal favourite will be the ones coming out of africa and maldives. they exhibit the most amount of pink on their face and when kept till alpha/terminal male, the dorsal fins will turn yellow. specimens from vanuatu will have very little to no pink on their face and the body will be predominantly green. interestingly, exquisite wrasses from vanuatu may occasionally have bright yellow dorsal fins. this is only seen in large alpha males. take a look at the photo below from liveaquaria. the vanuatu one looks spectacular, but it's almost impossible to obtain one like that. the colours are only from terminal males. exquisite wrasses from maldives and africa (pink faced ones) will not fade colour in captivity. specimens from vanuatu and especially indonesia (from my experience), will fade to a dull green. You can check with bro LaW regarding exquisite from indonesia. I was with him at CF and found a gorgeous exquisite with a bright yellow saddle on it's green body. the colour faded to dark green eventually so choose your wrasses wisely

Your picture does not show it flashing. A flashing vanuatu flasher wrasse will display intense yellow colour and the lines on the body will turn metallic blue. the caudal fin will turn bright red. the species name allocated to this is rubricaudalis. rubri = red, caudalis means tail fin in latin. so translated in english means red tail. That's a beautiful specimen nonetheless. i love it's dorsal filament. it has the sturdiest and most robust dorsal filament of all the flasher wrasses. Good job in acquiring one. This is one of the more prominent species in the hobby and definitely cannot compare to it's much cheaper cousins from philippines and indonesia. here's a picture of a flashing one and check out the intense yellow along with the blood red tail. Photo courtesy of Dr. hiroyuki tanaka.

please disregard the post about the nahackyi wrasse. it was a mis-id by me and my friend based on a photo taken of it via handphone. it is not a nahackyi wrasse. but still hope to see it one day with marjorie as they come from the same place.

i seldom regret the things i buy. Alot of thought goes into what i buy and for the Paracheilinus rubricaudalis, it was a no brainer. The super gorgeous flasher wrasse that is found only in fiji and vanuatu is a must have for any wrasse fanatic or fish collector. Interestingly, specimens from fiji have a vertical band on their tail while specimens from vanuatu do not. I am still waiting for the fiji ones. This species is interesting as it's primary nuptual colours are intense yellow. I hope you get to see your vanuatu flasher wrasse performing it's flashing. You will notice that the whole body turns intense yellow and the fins turn red. this is unusual when compared to other flasher wrasse. most other flasher wrasses turn bright metallic blue when flashing. The vanuatu flasher however, turns a bright warm yellow instead.

woah 4 boys!

CF - Possum wrasse - Many tiny 1 inch Liopropoma swalesi. Perfect for nano tanks - Female watanabei angels - Panda gobies. some are big! - Alpheus randalli pistol shrimps. Biggest i've ever seen. Some as big as camel shrimp. - Declivis butterflyfish - Pseudanthias kashiwae. Kashiwa anthias. beautiful, and many of them.

gratz on your "frag" sis ming!! very cute. love the eyes.

i see.. i was there from morning till evening today. and there were 3 more in the morning. what time were you there? anyway panda gobies seem to be very regular nowadays. perhaps it's in season.

omg terryz i just realised both of us sound like super extreme fish nerds....

it's EXTREMELY RARE. these fishes always go to US and japan. you should be VERY proud that you have 3.

OMG. HOW MANY LEFT??

what is a blue eyed goby. isit tryssogobius colini!?

chaetodon nippon coming your way!

plenty of radiant wrasse, twistii wrasse, splendid leopards at ML. also check out the crucifer anemones. gorgeous.

This is balanophyllia. Look at the skeleton and compare with super sun. it's different. Balanophyllias have very smooth edges on the lip of the corallite, and the tentacles are either transparent, lime green, pink or orange.

no. Suncoral = Tubastrea sp. the one commonly offered in our market is Tubastrea fulkneri. (google this scientific name) Super Sun = Dendrophyllia sp. There are four, maybe more, species of Dendrophyllia. D. gracilis, D. arbuscula, D. fistula and the super rare super beautiful, D. ramea. The supersuns from LCK are Dendrophyllia fistula. Do a google search on these. Balanophyllia is different from the above two. they are very uncommon and always come in only 1-4 heads.

wrought iron starcki damsel! LOL

less than $10