What kind of wrasse?

[naterade112886]

I was told he is a X Mas wrasse. But he looks different from others I have seen any ideas

 

[Cment]

looks like a melanurus to me

 

[Duke4Life]

Halichores chrysotaenia aka vroliks wrasse

 

[dewboy1127]

Melanarus

 

[DeniseAndy]

Definitely Halichores sp. With such blue in the pic I cannot tell for certain. Hazard a guess would be melanarus. Although, the christmas wrasse can look very different depending on where it is from.

 

[Duke4Life]

Colored dots on tail and ridges on side aren't as long, these are what did me in on Vroliks.

 

[redwingrob40]

Halichores chrysotaenia aka vroliks wrasse

IMO +1 on vroliks, because it has the spots on the body as opposed to stripe like a melanurus.

 

[redwingrob40]

Pretty fish btw

 

[DeniseAndy]

Yeah, the spots were bugging me too. It is a beauty as redwingrob40 said. Love my christmas. They should be out all day and dive into sand for a quick 12 hour nap overnight.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Duke4life nailed the id and the reasons why. Definitely H. chrysotaenia.

 

[evolved]

^yup!

But I'll add that I think the tail pattern is easier to quickly distinguish Vroliks from Melanurus, rather than the body.

 

[MIKE NY]

X2....the round marks on the tail are the give away.

 

[Javen]

It's a melanorus I have one

 

[eatbreakfast]

It's a melanorus I have one

H. melanurus and H. chrysotaenia are sister species, very closely related, but as mentioned in some of the above posts, some subtle patterning differences in the body, and more noticeably in the tail. It's H. chrysotaenia.

 

[4FordFamily]

Duke4life nailed the id and the reasons why. Definitely H. chrysotaenia.

X3

 

[Kami2011]

I think it's a melanarus

 

[zoomonster]

Good catch... I would have thought it was a Melanurus at first glance too. I actually had to get up and look at my Melanurus and see the difference in markings.

Funny they called him a christmas wrasse. I bought a CW about a year ago and later figured out it was really a red line wrasse. Subtle differences in markings fooled me.

 

[saltyhog]

I think it's a melanarus

Look at these pictures and you'll see why it's not a melanurus.

Zoomonster, this is another example of why common names are so confusing and impractical. There are so many wrasse called "Christmas Wrasse", H. claudia, H. ornatussimus, H. biocellatus, H. melanurus, H. chrysotaenia....and several others I'm sure. Lot's of times the wholesaler doesn't put the scientific name at all and the average LFS doesn't know the difference any way. I'm fortunate that most of the folks in our LFS are pretty good with fish ID.

 

[naterade112886]

Thanks you guys rock I appreciate all the insight

 

[OrionN]

I was looking for ways to differentiate between Melanurus vs. Chrysotaenia. Not finding anything very useful until I read this thread. With information and pictures in this thread, I was able to clearly ID, I know why, my wrasse as a H. melanurus rather than H. chrysotaenia, the OP's fish. Thanks a lot guys.
My wrasse when I got her from Petco 14 months ago

Now. Not quite fully developed yet but clearly easily ID as H. melanurus. Since he is not fully developed, the tail coloration are not easy to determine, but the stripe patterns of the body, dorsal and anal fins are unmistakable.