New Zealand banded wrasse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Notolabrus fucicola (Richardson, 1840) |
The New Zealand banded wrasse or yellow-saddled wrasse, Notolabrus fucicola, is a wrasse of the genus Notolabrus, found in the Eastern Indian Ocean, off eastern Australia and all around New Zealand on rocky weedy reef areas. Its length is between 30 and 60 cm and large specimens, which might be over 25 years old, weigh almost 5 kg.
The New Zealand banded wrasse is the largest wrasse in New Zealand waters. It is a moderately deep-bodied fish of variable colouring, young being reddish-brown mottled with green and orange, whilst adults are green-brown tinged with purple with indistinct yellowish vertical bars on the body and fins. They have powerful canine teeth enabling them to remove limpets, chitons, and barnacles from the rocks, and can crush and eat crabs, mollusks, and sea urchins easily.
All New Zealand banded wrasse start life as females and become males when adult.
These fish may be caught on a handline, and fight well, but are not good eating.
[edit] References
- Notolabrus fucicola (TSN 614011). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 11 March 2006.
- "Notolabrus fucicola". 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
