Fiveband Wrasse

Interesting Info

• The Fiveband Wrasse, is a giant of the reef world. In Australia it lives from Western Australia across the tropical north, all the way down to New South Wales and even Lord Howe Island.
• Adults wear bold vertical “stripes” that make them stand out underwater, while females usually show four wide bars. Terminal males have the same stripes but with brighter flashes of green and yellow around the head.
• Juveniles look different, they carry six thin white bars and a fake “eye spot” near the tail to confuse predators.
• As they grow older, their lips turn thick and rubbery—perfect tools for crunching through the shells of crabs, snails, and urchins.
• Fiveband Wrasses are expert sand sifters. They scoop up mouthfuls of sand, spit the grains back out through their gills, and swallow tasty prey hiding inside.
• Their menu is packed with reef snacks: shrimp, crabs, sea urchins, worms, tiny shellfish, brittle stars, and even fish eggs.
• By eating spiny urchins and molluscs, they help keep reef ecosystems in balance—like natural gardeners of the coral world.
• They are daytime hunters, gliding across sandy reef slopes and channels, but at night they tuck themselves into crevices to sleep safely.
• At breeding time, pairs form at dusk. The female releases her eggs into the water, and the male fertilises them. The eggs then drift away with the currents until they hatch.
• All wrasses have a surprise twist in their life story—many start life as females and later change into males. The Fiveband Wrasse is no exception.
• Big adults can live for more than a decade, ruling their patch of reef and keeping smaller rivals away.
• Juveniles often hang close to branching corals or long-spined sea urchins for shelter, and sometimes swim alongside goatfish or parrotfish to avoid being noticed.
• In some tropical areas people do eat them, but like other large reef fish, they can sometimes carry ciguatera, a natural toxin that makes them risky to eat.