Wrasse

There are two types of wrasse usually kept at the Marine Discovery Centre. These are the Purple Wrasse and Blue Throat Wrasse, both described below. Wrasse have an interesting life cycle, whereby juveniles join a female harem that is dominated by a single male. If this male dies, the dominant female changes sex and becomes the dominant male. This is reasonably common among reef fish.

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Osteichthyes - Bony Fish

Family Labridae - Wrasse

Notolabrus fucicola - Purple Wrasse, Kelpie

Notolabrus fucicola - Purple Wrasse
(Edgar, 1997)

Habitat: Exposed reef; 0 – 90 m depth
Distribution: SA to NSW and around Tasmania (also NZ)
Maximum Size: Length to 400 mm
Diet: Small invertebrates
Comments:
Have a blue, green or brown background colour with five yellow dots underneath the dorsal fin. Males do not differ substantially from females, although they are more intensely coloured. Sometimes mates with blue throat wrasse producing distinctive hybrids.

Family Labridae

Notolabrus tetricus - Blue-throated Wrasse, Parrotfish, Kelpie

Notolabrus tetricus - Blue-throated Wrasse
(Grant, 1987)

Habitat: Reef; 1 – 160 m depth
Distribution: SA to NSW and around Tasmania
Maximum Size: Length to 500 mm
Diet: Small Invertebrates
Comments:
Juveniles are green or brown but as they mature, females gain a black stripe followed by a white stripe across the body. Large females transform into males and develop a rounded bluish head and yellow pectoral fins and pelvic fins.