Girdled wrasse
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| iGirdled wrasse | ||||||||||||||
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 Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling
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| Notolabrus cinctus (Hutton, 1877) |
The girdled wrasse, Notolabrus cinctus, is a wrasse of the genus Notolabrus, found around the South Island of New Zealand including the Chatham Islands and Snares Islands at depths of between 20 and 90 m. Its length is between 20 and 35 cm.
The girdled wrasse is an uncommon fish which at first sight could be mistaken for a large New Zealand spotty, although it grows to be up to one third larger.
Young fish are a uniform olive brown, while adults are brown-grey with a single wide blue-grey vertical bar down each side. There is no visible difference between the sexes.
Young girdled wrasse remove parasites from fish, moving on to their adult diet of molluscs, crabs and other crustaceans, including planktonic animals.
[edit] References
- Notolabrus cinctus (TSN 614009). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 18 April 2006.
- "Notolabrus cinctus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
