Johnsoni wrasse displaying

[NKT]

Interesting thing happened tonight...I observed my johnsoni male doing his courting dance for the first time since I got him. I had turned off the powerheads for some routine tank maintenance, when I noticed him begin to attack his reflection in the glass. Shortly thereafter, he noticed the female, and began intensifying his colors. He did a series of twirls, loops, and fast streaking with his fins totally flared and bright red, followed by a short upward burst. Then he would settle down again and perform a series of twitches, and then repeat the whole thing over again. Absolutely fascinating . Unfortunately my camera skills weren't up to the task of recording everything he did, but I did snap a couple: here are some not-so-great shots

I forgot to mention that the female turns quite pale during this process...look at the comparison shot and how pale she is next to the male!

 

[Hiroyuki Tanaka]

NKT,

Wow ! Very nice photos, and well focused. The male is "almost" displaying to its mate, and I hope you to observe his more gorgeous coloration from now.

Here is an old photo taken by a famous diver Dave Johnson more than 20 years ago. The species was described by Jack Rndall in 1988 and Dave contributed many photos to Jack's paper on four Cirrhilabrus and a Paracheilinus from the Marshalls, and one of these was C. johnsoni that was named in honor of Dave.

Note the bluish white stripes and yellowis body. It seems to me an ultimate displaying coloration of the male. The size of the male in the photo is unknown.

 

[Rascal]

Very cool. Did the male "rush" the female? Did they spawn?