Bluetail Wrasse

Interesting Info

• The Bluetail Wrasse is a strikingly beautiful wrasse found in subtropical waters of eastern Australia, from southern Queensland and New South Wales and around Lord Howe Island.
• Its global distribution includes subtropical reefs of the southwest Pacific—New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island, the Kermadec Islands of New Zealand, and parts of southern Japan.
• Males are vivid blue with a bright sapphire-blue tail and fine darker blue lines across the head and body, giving them an iridescent glow underwater.
• Females are more subdued, with yellowish to orange bodies fading to a brilliant blue tail, while juveniles are often mottled brown or orange with pale flecks for camouflage.
• As with many wrasses, they are protogynous hermaphrodites: all begin as females, and the largest, dominant individuals change sex to males.
• They live on outer reef slopes and exposed coastal reefs, where currents bring abundant plankton and small invertebrates to feed on.
• Their diet includes small benthic crustaceans, molluscs, and polychaete worms, which they pick from the sand and reef surface.
• Bluetail Wrasse often forage close to the substrate, darting quickly into crevices if threatened.
• They are most commonly encountered by divers in pairs or small groups on deeper reef slopes, usually between 15–40 m (50–130 ft).
• At night they bury themselves in sand for protection, a behaviour common in many Anampses wrasses.
• Spawning occurs in pairs or small groups, with eggs and sperm released into the water column to drift with plankton.
• Predators include larger reef carnivores such as snappers, groupers, and reef sharks.
• This species is highly prized in the aquarium trade for its vivid blue tail and overall electric colouration, but it requires large, stable aquariums and is not easy to keep.