Can you identify this Fish? /wrasse?

[viperdrake]

Hello guys, ive been visiting and reading reefs.org for a long time now.. and finally decided to register to see if i can get any help identofying this fish.

i think is some kind of wrasse, it was captured by my neighbors son.

its a very fast slender fish, and when first introduced to the main tank it dug itself into the substrate and came out the other day.

i tried getting some pictures of him but as always i am terrible taking pictures of fishes dunno how you guys do it. they came out all blurry.. here is the less blurry one

and here is a drawing i made ( Ok. im not davinci lol )

btw i live in puerto rico in the caribbean sea. thats where this fish was caugth. so it migth be from the atlantic :S


thnx in advance

Viper

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm, I can't tell from the photo, but the drawing looks like a fang blenny to me.

The diving in the sand is suggestive of a wrasse though.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, upon further research it seems that all the fang blennies are from the pacific or indian ocean.

Any chance you could get more photos? Even blurry ones from a different angle may help.

Does it have a mouth like a wrasse?

 

[bubblepuffer]

A WrasseDuster is my best guess

 

[IslandCrow]

I agree it does look like some type of blenny. I'm not sure if it's one of the fanged varieties. It would look a lot like a Smith's fanged blenny, except for the yellow. It's definitely not a lyretail. . .since it doesn't have a lyre tail. There are at least a couple other Meiacanthus (or however you spell that) species, though. One is all yellow, and I can't think of what the others look like. Of course, I don't think any of them burrow.

What type of camera are you using? It can be really tough to take pictures of fast swimmers if you can't manually set the shutter speed. If you have an action setting on the camera, though, that will usually set the max ISO and faster shutter.

 

[Anonymous]

This is likely a juvenile of Halichoeres maculipinna.

 

[Anonymous]

It's range is from North Carolina to Brazil and it's abdundant. In addition, all Halichoeres wrasses burrow in sand. Sounds like the fish to me.

 

[viperdrake]

Hello guys again ive been trying to get more pictures to no avail

i really dont know how to use a camera exept from pressing the button to take the picture lol but im using a

pannasonic Lumix
DMC-FX8

now from all the response id have to say that Matt got it to 99% rigth

it look identical exepto from the greenish/redish on the dorsal fin
migth be a gender indicator?? or maybe mine isnt mature to get that coloring dunno, ill try to take more pictures but i think is the
Halichoeres maculipinna

thx again as soon as i get more pics ill post them .


regards
-Viper

 

[Anonymous]

it look identical exepto from the greenish/redish on the dorsal fin
migth be a gender indicator?? or maybe mine isnt mature to get that coloring dunno, ill try to take more pictures but i think is the
Halichoeres maculipinna
regards
-Viper

The coloring changes with age. Here is a picture of an adult of the same species. I'm guessing you just have a very young juvenile.

 

[Anonymous]

This is likely a juvenile of Halichoeres maculipinna.

Wow, awesome find! I love Halichoeres wrasses!