Over 600 species of often brightly coloured sea fish with thick lips. Most are under 20 cm long, though the humphead wrasse reaches 2.5 m. They eat small invertebrates, and many start life as females and change into males as they grow.
Quick answers
What is it?Fish
Carnivore?Yes
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Daytime
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
At a glance
Found inOceans
HabitatCoast
ColoursBlue, Green, Yellow
SizeSmall
LengthMostly under 20 cm; humphead wrasse up to 2.5 m
LegsNone
Covered inScales
Lives ingroups
Lives for3–30 years
Can swim
Lays eggs
In the wild
- What it eats
- Small invertebrates. Some smash clams, sea urchins and crabs on a favourite rock, and cleaner wrasses eat parasites off other fish.
Did you know
Cleaner wrasse run stations where big fish queue up to have parasites picked off.
In a 2019 study cleaner wrasses became the first fish to pass the mirror test, though the test's inventor disputes it.
Farmed cleaner wrasse are used in Scotland to pick sea lice off farmed salmon.
Often confused with
- Parrotfish
Parrotfish are now classed inside the wrasse family; their teeth are fused into a parrot-like beak for scraping algae.
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