Blue-headed and red-bodied; the male changes colour when courting and back again immediately.
To about 11 cm. Males have a blue-purple head and a red to maroon body with a yellow-orange belly; females are smaller and plainer orange-red. In display the male intensifies to a strong blue over the front half, raises the dorsal fin and swims a fast looping course above the rubble. The genus contains many similar species and several are being separated on the basis of male display colour, so identifications from a non-displaying fish are often provisional.
Groups of a male and many females feed on zooplankton a metre or so above rubble slopes and drop into cover when a predator passes. Like the flasher wrasses, they are worth photographing in the hour before sunset. Recorded from about 5 to 40 m.
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.