Another day at AFS Virtual Conference, and another fish "portrait". Ran my R script to randomly query Fishbase for a victim and it came back with this beautiful wrasse, that I hope to one day see in person in the wild, the Pink-Belly Wrasse (Halichoeres margaritaceus).

This wrasse inhabits shallow reefs and algal areas, and seems to prefer areas with some surge. Its native range extends from the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean to the Line Islands and Tuamoto Island in the Pacific, from Okinawa in the north to New South Wales and Lord Howe Island in the south. This is the female of the species, which is very similar in appearance to the female of the Nebula or Cloud Wrasse (Halichoeres nebulosus) which coincidently has an overlapping range and lifestyle....