A large family of fish, comprising more than six hundred species, wrasse are found throughout the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, usually along coral reefs and boulder-strewn shorelines, where the water is shallow and calm. While they are typically carnivorous, they also help keep the marine environment clean, as they scavenge and pickup after other, messier fish. Let’s take a look at just a handful of these fascinating, colorful fish.
Cleaner Wrasse
Brave enough to swim into the mouths of sharks and other large predators, this group of wrasse operate cleaning stations where such creatures as Manta rays, sea turtles, and even sharks will calmly line up to wait for a turn to be attended to. There are different species of cleaner wrasse living in symbiosis with other marine life in many different places around the world; often, they’ll set up shop on a coral head or a big rock, just waiting to remove parasites and dead skin from their clientele. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get them to give you a manicure when they’re not busy helping other animals. One of the most common species of cleaners include the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse, which is prolific throughout the Indo-Pacific, the Red Sea, and Southeast Asia. Interestingly, all cleaner wrasse begin their lives as females; later, one in six to eight transforms herself into a male.
Yellowtail Coris Wrasse
Growing to a length of about fourteen inches long, this lovely little wrasse is decorated with every color of the rainbow. Besides its brilliant lemon-yellow tail, it has a vibrant blue rear section that gradually fades to a shade of emerald green toward the fish’s front half. The dorsal and anal fins are orange to red in color, and are trimmed in a pattern of blue lines and dots, and the wrasse’s face, which is orange, is decorated with horizontal stripes in shades of iridescent blue and green. These fish search for food under rocks and coral, often digging beneath small chunks of debris and turning them over to find small creatures to feed on. They live in mated pairs, and at night, they bury themselves in the sand to sleep in safety. They are distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific, including Hawaii.
Bird Wrasse
With a long snout for capturing prey, this beautiful wrasse looks almost as if it could be related to an anteater. While females of the species are a ruddy brown color with a darker brown spot pattern and brown fins, males are a flamboyant midnight blue with vibrant green fins and a green tail. These fish can be found in reef environments throughout the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, from Hawaii south to central Polynesia, and west to Melanesia and Micronesia. They are also found in Japan.
Humphead Wrasse
Sometimes called the Humphead Parrotfish, and also known as the Napoleon or the Maori Wrasse, this is the largest of all known wrasse species, with males capable of reaching a length of six feet. In contrast, females reach a maximum size of three feet, still big for a wrasse. The fish is easily identified by its thick, fleshy lips and the hump that protrudes above its eyes; older fish have larger humps on their heads. Juvenile and female humpheads are a reddish orange color on their dorsal sides with lighter orange to white ventral coloration. Males can be purplish blue, bluish green, or a very bright electric green or blue color. This incredible reef inhabitant can be found at depths from one to one hundred meters, preferring steeply sloped reefs to flatter surfaces. Threatened by dynamite fishing and cyanide fishing, as well as being at risk of being spearfished at night, and also captured for sale to aquarists, these magnificent animals are classified as Endangered on IUCN’s red list. They are found in China, the Maldives, Indonesia, Australia, and many other Indo-Pacific locations.
Creole Wrasse
With elongated bodies that vary in color from lavender to vibrant purple to a darker violet, these beautiful fish develop red to yellowish areas on their lower rear bodies as they age. Growing up to about 15 inches long, these wrasse are often decorated with spotted or banded patterns as juveniles, and unlike some other species that prefer to be more solitary, they tend to swim in schools and feed on zooplankton; their mouths are much smaller in relation to their bodies than the mouths of other commonly encountered wrasse species. You’ll find them along outer reefs, particularly above drop-offs, down to a depth of about 40 meters, throughout Florida and the Bahamas as well as in the Caribbean.
Neon Wrasse
Also known as the Yellowhead Wrasse or the Sunrise Wrasse, Neon Wrasse inhabit the western Atlantic, including the Florida coast, and can be found in the Caribbean and southern Brazil, as well. Normally found in pairs or small groups consisting of a male and a harem of females, the fish change as they get older. Juveniles are a bright golden yellow with a horizontal neon blue line across their bodies; females are reddish orange with horizontal neon stripes, and males have a characteristic yellow head, a yellow patch on each side, and dark violet dorsal surfaces with lighter purple to blue ventral surfaces.
California Sheephead Wrasse
A large wrasse that inhabits the shoreline from Monterey Bay south to Mexico’s Gulf of California, the California Sheephead Wrasse lives in kelp forests and along rocky reefs. Juveniles are bright red with a white stripe across the body and a black spot on the tail; females are bright pink, and males are black with a white jaw and a broad red band across the body. As with many other wrasse, this species starts life as a female; some transform to males once they reach a length of 18 inches. They tend to be a maximum of about eight pounds and have been overfished to the point where they are listed as vulnerable on IUCN’s red list of endangered species.
Fascinating to see and extremely photogenic, wrasse are some of nature’s most intriguing fish. With so many different species spanning the globe, you’re certain to encounter at least a few during your dives; the more you watch them, the more they will capture your imagination.