I Caught A Wrasse On Tuesday

[Newboy]

The skipper said something along the line of 'corequeen'?! Only a little fella, but he reckons it's a big one for them. What is this wrasse?

[Adam F]

Nearly Kam, not a CoreQueen (i expect Jack and Mike will give you an amusing explination of this)...but a Corkwing Wrasse.

 

A small chappie, very colourful and quite rare compared to the Ballan Wrasse. The true identifier of a real corkwing is the black spot in the centre of the dorsal root. Very similar to a Goldsinney who has the spot on the top of the tail root.

 

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/corkwing.htm

[Seamouse]

Nearly Kam, not a CoreQueen (i expect Jack and Mike will give you an amusing explination of this)...but a Corkwing Wrasse.

 

A small chappie, very colourful and quite rare compared to the Ballan Wrasse. The true identifier of a real corkwing is the black spot in the centre of the dorsal root. Very similar to a Goldsinney who has the spot on the top of the tail root.

 

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/corkwing.htm

Hi folks,

OK, now I'm confused. I thought a corkwing was this:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/pages/corkwingwrasse.html

 

I've had fish just like that and when you see them, they really don't look like a ballan but they're MUCH bigger than goldsinnys. On the other hand, Adam's site's corkwing pic is most definitely not a goldsinny, the tail spot is indeed central. To make it worse, I called a fish a ballan the other day that had a very blurry tailspot but markings more suggestive of a young ballan than the purer 'gold' of a goldsinny and now I think I probably missed out on a species . Perhaps the corkwing has high sexual dimorphism and I've been lumping both goldsinny and female corkwings together. Bah, Humbug.

...and to make it even more complicated, take a look at a Rock Cook!!! Aaaagghhh!

 

Steve

[jack]

This is the metalwing,closely related as you can see,to the corkwing,but cannot fly or swim very well...jack

[Newboy]

Can't remember whether it had a black spot on the tail or not, but I guess the skipper knows his fish. He said it wasn't far off the british record. He says many get caught but not many rightfully identified.

[Paul D]

On the site that Adam pointed out there is also a picture of it in its mating colours, where it looks much more like the other picture.