Rose-veiled fairy wrasse
Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa
Valid name (FishBase; confirmed in Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and WoRMS, October 2026).
- English
- Rose-veiled fairy wrasse
- Scientific
- Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Reef fish
- Family
- Labridae (wrasses)
- Maximum size
- Up to about 7.7 cm (standard length)
- Depth and habitat
- Coral reefs and reef-associated habitats, recorded from 40 to 70 m
- IUCN status
- NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)
Description
A small fairy wrasse described in 2022. Males are bright magenta at the front shading to peach and orange-pink behind, with rose-coloured veil-like fins; females are plainer. It lives over rubble on deep, mesophotic reefs at about 40 to 70 m, where it feeds on plankton.
In the Maldives
Its name comes from the Dhivehi word for rose (finifenmaa), the national flower of the Maldives. It was the first fish species to be formally described by a Maldivian scientist, Ahmed Najeeb of the Maldives Marine Research Institute, and is known only from the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Cirrhilabrus-finifenmaa.html
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Cirrhilabrus_finifenmaa_underwater_photograph_from_Rasdhoo_
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in MRS 1997 (available chapters), FishBase (country: Maldives) or Dhivehi Wikipedia.