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The new labrid species, Cirrhilabrus isosceles, is described from six specimens, 31.0–56.7 mm SL, collected from the Ryukyu Archipelago of Japan and the northern reaches of the Philippines in the western Pacific Ocean. The holotype and a paratype were collected at 35 m depth from Funauki Bay, Iriomote-jima, Ryukyu Islands, while the four other paratypes were collected at 24–36 m from Fuga Island, Cagayan Province, northern Philippines. The new species is distinguished by features of the terminal-phase male: i.e. color pattern, a prominent long mid-dorsal-fin basal dark spot, and a broadly lanceolate caudal fin. Despite its atypical caudal-fin shape, the new species has similar color patterns to the Cirrhilabrus lunatus species complex, which differ in having a somewhat lunate caudal fin. Indeed, the mtDNA barcode COI sequences for the new species matches those of some other members of the C. lunatus complex, specifically C. cf. lunatus, C. brunneus, and C. squirei (shared mtDNA haplotypes among species has been documented in other Cirrhilabrus species complexes). Cirrhilabrus isosceles is sympatric with three other members of the C. lunatus complex, and apparently hybridizes with at least one of them. The new species is most often confused with Cirrhilabrus lanceolatus, based on the shared caudal-fin shape, however, the two species are not closely related: C. lanceolatus is in a different set of mtDNA lineages most closely related to C. jordani from Hawai’i, indicating that caudal-fin shape in this genus is not phylogenetically informative. A neighbor-joining tree and genetic distance matrix based on the COI marker is presented for a number of Cirrhilabrus species.

The gobiid fish Valenciennea yanoi n. sp. is described from two specimens collected in 13–20 m at Iriomote Island, Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Diagnostic features include the combination of a low first dorsal fin with a rounded margin, no black spot on the dorsal fin, 12 second-dorsal and anal-fin soft rays, no black spot and no yellow stripe on the snout, no black spot on the upper part of the eye, three narrow vivid sky-blue stripes on the lateral side of the head, and two broad orange and yellow stripes on the body reaching to the rear margin of the caudal fin. The new species is most similar to Valenciennea parva Hoese & Larson, 1994, but differs by lacking black spots on the snout and eye and by having broader orange and yellow stripes which reach the rear margin of the caudal fin.