@CheeseChameleon2007 because I've spent far more of my life looking at marine fish than is the healthy recommended amount. This is one of those species where nearly all the ones we see in aquaria (and most pictures in books) are the females/initial phase with the adult males like this one being only rarely seen (they don't ship well apparently so are usually old females that have 'changed' them being sequential hermaphrodites and all)
@CheeseChameleon2007 not stupid at all (and remember no one knows its you!) , sorry if I came across rude I was very tired. Everyone makes mistakes, that is how you learn and my knowledge of reef fish is not infallible either! In my experiences, wrasses cause more identification problems than any of the other common reef fish families as there are tons of species and juveniles, initial phase and terminal phase individuals can look very different and you also get transitional individuals. Let me know if you'd like me to explain how one would get to the answer
