🐠 McCosker's Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus mccoskeri)
A Vivid Orange-to-Red Body With Electric Blue Stripes • Elongated, Trailing Dorsal Filaments on Males • A Spectacular Courtship Flashing Display
 
📋 A note on identification: the McCosker's Flasher Wrasse is commonly mislabelled at wholesalers as the closely related Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri), since both share a similar orange body, blue accents, and filamentous fins. The cleanest way to tell them apart is the dorsal fin: males of this species carry three to four elongated filaments, while Carpenter's typically shows just one very long filament.
This species has a vivid orange-to-red body, darkening toward the top and lightening to near-yellow near the belly, decorated with electric blue horizontal stripes across the body and fins, with males displaying elongated, trailing dorsal fin filaments. It comes from the Western Indian Ocean and adjacent Indo-Pacific waters, from Thailand and northern Sumatra to the Maldives and eastern Africa, inhabiting sheltered coral reef environments at depths of 5 to 40 metres. Every McCosker's Flasher Wrasse we ship is feeding well.
A spectacular natural behaviour defines this species: dominant males perform a dazzling courtship "flashing" display, lighting up with intensified colour, flicking their dorsal filaments open and snapping them shut while sprinting across the rockwork to attract females. It's a real jumper, even by flasher wrasse standards, so a fully enclosed, gap-free top is essential, since it can find its way through even a tiny, unnoticed gap. It's fully reef safe, peaceful, and does best kept as a single male with one or more females. It reaches up to 7cm, so a 210L tank suits it well.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Orange-Red Body With Electric Blue Stripes: A vivid, popular nano wrasse
✨ Spectacular Flashing Display: Males light up and flare their fins to attract females
🔍 An Identification Note Worth Knowing: Commonly confused with Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse
🌿 Fully Reef Safe: Won't harm corals or invertebrates
⚠️ A Determined Jumper: A fully enclosed, gap-free lid is essential