New Species

Cirrhilabrus marinda, a cryptic new species of fairy wrasse similar to C. condei

Cirrhilabrus marindais the newest species of fairy wrasse to be described, with the new fish being a very close offshoot of the common aquarium favorite,Cirrhilabrus condei. Marinda’s fairy wrasse looks very similar to Conde’s fairy wrasse with a nearly identical color pattern in both sexes, and the newC. marindabeing distinguished primarily on the basis of the shape and coloration of the male’s dorsal fin.

cirrhilabrus-marinda-condei — Cirrhilabrus marinda featured in images A, B & C while the closely related C. condei is pictured in images D, E & F.

的基因,Cirrhilabrus marindais the same asC. condeiand likePseudojuloides edwardi, the researchers assign the rate of “phenotypic divergence outpacing changes in mitochondrial genotype”. This type of change in physical appearance before the genetic makeup is expected in the early stages of fish speciation, especially where the male nuptial display and coloration is concerned.

cirrhilabrus-condei — Cirrhilabrus condei from Papua New Guinea above, and West Papua below.

The primary noticeable difference betweenCirrhilabrus marindaandC. condeiis the presence of a mostly black dorsal fin in maleC. marindawhich is also much taller than in typical specimens ofC. condei. The apparent reason for the beginnings of this new species divergence is a difference in habitat preference with Conde’s fairy wrasse preferring inshore reef habitats while Marinda’s fairy wrasse prefers deeper and more offshore habitats.

cirrhilabrus-marinda-group — A small group of Cirrhilabrus marinda with the male showing the nearly all black and higher profile dorsal fin characteristic of the species.

BothC. marindaandC. condeican be found living from Eastern Indonesia to Vanuatu but as far as we know they are not known to co-occur in the same habitats. Ironically enough, during our excursion to the Solomon Islands we collected “Blackfin Condei Wrasses” before this paper was published, precisely where you would expect to find the newly describedCirrhilabrus marinda.

The next time we are in the field and see a slightly different variant of aCirrhilabrusor aParacheilinuswrasse we will definitely take note and try to bring back some specimen samples. The newly inducted species ofCirrhilabrusis described by Allen, Erdmann & Ailami in theJournal of the Ocean Science Foundation.

Jake Adams

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.