Yellow-flanked Fairy Wrasse

Cirrhilabrus ryukyuensis

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Labridae
Genus: Cirrhilabrus
Species: Cirrhilabrus ryukyuensis

The yellow-flanked fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus ryukyuensis) is a small, brilliantly coloured wrasse whose males flash yellow flanks and electric blue and purple fins during display. Females and juveniles are much plainer, in shades of pink and orange.

It grows to about 10-12 cm and lives in loose groups over rubble and coral slopes, hovering above the bottom to pick zooplankton from the water. A single male guards a harem of females, and in the late afternoon he puts on dazzling courtship displays with his fins fully spread.

The yellow-flanked fairy wrasse is found in the western Pacific, including the Philippines, where groups are often seen over rubble slopes and reef edges.

Photo: Pierre Pericard, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist