Flasher Wrasse ID

[Xefan]

Can anyone ID this flasher wrasse? It has some of the traits of Carpenters but the colours are quite different and I can't match it up in my ID books.

 

[i cant think]

Can anyone ID this flasher wrasse? It has some of the traits of Carpenters but the colours are quite different and I can't match it up in my ID books.

It looks like it could be P’cheilinus paineorum or maybe P’cheilinus xanthocirritus.
But at the same time it could very easily be a hybrid between 2 or more species.

My guess however would be leaning towards Paineorum;

And a site with photos of the various different flasher species :)
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/90687-Paracheilinus/browse_photos

 

[Xefan]

It looks like it could be P’cheilinus paineorum or maybe P’cheilinus xanthocirritus.
But at the same time it could very easily be a hybrid between 2 or more species.

My guess however would be leaning towards Paineorum;

And a site with photos of the various different flasher species :)
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/90687-Paracheilinus/browse_photos

Thanks, yeah, I mean a hybrid is a possibility, my photo was taken in the wild in North Sulawesi, there were a lot of filamentous flashers and some obvious carpenters around, but this particular one stood out as incredibly distinct in terms of colouration, so I wasn't sure if it was natural variation, a hybrid, or something else altogether. I agree based on that it looks like it's probably paineorum! Only difference I still see to paineorum is the red stripes at the front, rather than the blue/turquoise ones, and a more blue tail rather than red.