Exquisite wrasse

Cirrhilabrus exquisitus

Fish
IUCN: Data deficient

Usual depth8–22 m
Water temperature22–29 °C
Best monthsMarch and April
How commonOccasional

Photo credit: (c) Rickard Zerpe, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

The exquisite wrasse is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Labridae, the wrasses, which is native to reefs in the Indo-West Pacific region. It can be found in the aquarium trade.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Exquisite wrasse”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 29 records
February: 109 records
March: 168 records
April: 254 records
May: 117 records
June: 86 records
July: 33 records
August: 66 records
September: 30 records
October: 31 records
November: 47 records
December: 36 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 8–22 m · Deepest record: 40 m

0–10 m: 83 records
10–20 m: 379 records
20–30 m: 212 records
30–40 m: 8 records
40–50 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 22–29 °C

20–22 °C: 1 records
22–24 °C: 0 records
24–26 °C: 15 records
26–28 °C: 168 records
28–30 °C: 480 records

Photos

(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Storm Martin, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) jeyre, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Exquisite wrasse, Exquisite fairy wrasse, Exquisite Fairy-wrasse, exquisite wrasse

Names in 4 more languages

Spanish: Lábrido exquisito
French: Labre exquis
Japanese: Nishiki-itohikibera, Nishikiitohikibera, ニシキイトヒキベラ
Simplified Chinese: 柳冷仔, 紅娘仔, 艳丽丝隆头鱼, 豔麗絲隆頭魚, 豔麗絲鰭鸚鯛

Other scientific names: Cirrhilabrus exquistius

Similar species

Blue-scaled Fairy Wrasse
Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura
Black-finned Wrasse
Cirrhilabrus punctatus
Scott's Fairy-wrasse
Cirrhilabrus scottorum
Peacock Wrasse
Cirrhilabrus temminckii
Latigo Fairy Wrasse
Cirrhilabrus briangreenei
Lubbock's Wrasse
Cirrhilabrus lubbocki

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,188 open-data records from 1951 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.

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