Thicklip Wrasse

Interesting Info

• The Thicklip Wrasse, is a big, heavy-bodied wrasse found across the Indo-Pacific. In Australia it lives from mid-Western Australia across the tropical north and along the Great Barrier Reef, south to northern New South Wales and Lord Howe Island.
• Adults are mostly dark green to black with a pale patch behind the head and thick, fleshy lips that give the fish its common name.
• Juveniles look completely different. They are white with bold black bars across the body and a large black spot on the tail base. As they grow, their colour gradually changes into the dark adult form.
• These wrasses have some of the thickest lips of any reef fish, and they use them like cushions to flip and crush hard-shelled prey on the reef.
• Thicklip Wrasses are sand sifters. They scoop up big mouthfuls of sand and rubble, spit it out through their gills, and swallow the worms, crabs, snails, urchins, and other hidden snacks inside.
• Their diet makes them important “clean-up crews” on reefs, keeping sea urchins and mollusc numbers in check so the ecosystem stays balanced.
• Like many wrasses, they are protogynous hermaphrodites—born female, with some later transforming into males to dominate breeding territories.
• Spawning usually happens in pairs or small groups at dusk, with eggs released into the water and drifting with the current until they hatch.
• These wrasses can live for more than a decade, and the biggest males are often the rulers of their reef patch.
• At night they rest inside reef crevices, but during the day they are bold and powerful swimmers that cruise reef slopes, lagoons, and sandy flats.
• In some parts of their range, Thicklip Wrasses are eaten by people, but like many big reef fish, they can sometimes carry ciguatera toxin, making them risky as food.
• Their scientific name melapterus means “black wing,” a reference to the dark adult colour that contrasts with the pale juvenile form.