Spot-tail Wrasse

Interesting Info

• The Spot-tail Wrasse is found in Australian waters from north-western Western Australia, including Shark Bay and Green Island, extending across northern Australia.
• Globally, it ranges through the Indo-Pacific from East Africa and the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean to Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and east to Samoa and Tonga.
• Juveniles are strikingly patterned, with a white body, reddish bars, and a prominent black ocellus (eye spot) at the rear of the dorsal fin.
• Adults are more subdued in colour, generally olive to greenish with a distinctive black spot at the base of the tail fin, which gives the species its common name.
• Males are often larger and more brightly coloured than females, especially during the breeding season when they display stronger green and blue tones.
• Like other wrasses, the Spot-tail Wrasse is a protogynous hermaphrodite, beginning life as female before some transition into dominant males.
• Spawning occurs in pairs or small groups, usually in shallow reef habitats, with fertilised eggs released into the water column to drift with currents.
• Its diet includes crabs, molluscs, brittle stars, and other benthic invertebrates, which it uncovers by digging into sand or turning rubble.
• Juveniles tend to inhabit shallow sandy lagoons and rubble patches, while adults are more common on deeper reef slopes up to 30 m (98 ft).
• They play an important ecological role by preying on hard-shelled invertebrates and helping to regulate populations of urchins and crabs.