A small Red Sea wrasse whose males flash red and blue for a second at a time while displaying at dusk.
To about 9 cm. Eight narrow dark stripes run the length of the body, the tail is rounded, and none of the soft dorsal rays is drawn out, which separates it from most of the genus. Preserved juveniles show only about four stripes on the upper body. Displaying males intensify their colour dramatically and briefly.
It is the only flasher wrasse in the Red Sea, so there is nothing in the genus to confuse it with. The realistic confusion is with the social fairy wrasse over the same rubble, and the eight dark stripes settle it, because no Red Sea Cirrhilabrus carries them.
Five to forty-five metres, and in coral areas commonly below twenty-five. The display for which the group is named — males racing past with the fins erected, then a fast vertical dash and drop back to the bottom — is documented for the genus rather than for this species specifically, so the timing of it here is not something this entry can state.
Collected commercially for aquariums at a very high price, which is the main pressure on it.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.