Cockscomb ID help

[Octoloco]

Larry found this guy while diving at the T-Dock Sunday night. We've looked through all the books and it looks similar to the slender cockscomb but with some definite differences including color variations. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

[Tom Nic]

Definitely a Cockscomb! Color is not much of an identifier for these guys.

[Dusty2]

Awesome photo but as far as ID I'll leave that one to Greg. I would lean toward slender due to a lack of striping but that's 100% guess. Sure is an interesting color.

[Octoloco]

Tom - we figured it was a cockscomb - we have just never seen the coloring before, leading us to our question of species.

Thanks Rich - we thought is was pretty special coloring too! It was cool to not only see it but to see it out in the open for a bit.

[Greg Jensen]

This is male breeding color in high cockscombs- orange dorsal and anal fins.

[Octoloco]

Awesome! Thanks for help Greg.

[sekhmet]

Yay Greg you just solved my ID puzzle too. I was looking at my key and it spoke to looking at lines under the chin for identifying between slender and high. I don't know about you guys, but I don't get many opportunities to chuck these guys under the chin and look at the lines...!!!!

[Octoloco]

Thanks for the help everyone!
Obviously I need to attend a REEF class one of these days!

[Biodiversity_Guy]

Amazing picture. They can be very shy. Thanks for sharing!