A small striped red-brown fish that lives inside the reef rather than on it, moving in short darts between one hiding place and the next and almost never crossing open water.
It is the shyer cousin of the sixline wrasse, and where that one at least stays inside a single coral head, this one works rubble and the deep spaces under plate corals, which is why it is seen far less often than its abundance suggests.
Nine centimeters (3.5 in), hunting the small crustaceans and worms that live in the same crevices. It sleeps in a mucus cocoon like other wrasses, which masks its scent overnight.
Finding one is a torch-and-patience job: light into a hole, wait, and it will usually cross the beam once. Photographing it is harder than finding it.
The genus. Pseudocheilinus Bleeker 1862 - pseudo- (false). ETYFish
The species. Pseudocheilinus evanidus Jordan & Evermann 1903 - vanishing. ETYFish
- small red-brown fish with fine pale stripes along the body
- white bar just behind the head
- always inside coral or rubble, moving in short darts
- length up to 9 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no major threats known for this species, although it is exploited in the aquarium trade.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
