Orange wrasse

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Orange wrasse
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Labridae
Genus: Pseudolabrus
Species: P. luculentus
Binomial name
Pseudolabrus luculentus
(Richardson, 1848)

The orange wrasse, Pseudolabrus luculentus, is a wrasse of the genus Pseudolabrus, found in eastern Australia including Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, and around New Zealand, including the Kermadec Islands, in reef areas at depths of between 5 and 50 m. Its length is between 30 and 60 cm.

The orange wrasse is a brightly coloured fish of typical wrasse shape, but more solidly built that the similar scarlet wrasse.

Young fish and females are similar in shape and colour with a pointed snout, a plump belly, and a bright red-orange body colour. This colour phase has a distinctive series of horizontal white lines on the lower part of the head that continue back along the flanks and belly as five rows of small white scale markings.

Adult males have a blunter snout and are deeper bodied, with brick-red body colour that is green tinged on the flanks. The head is pale green with a red tinge and there is a scattering of red-brown spots under the chin. Along each side of the back, under the long soft dorsal fin, there are nine irregular squares alternating black and white. There is a distinctive blue spot at the base of the pectoral fin.

The breeding season is from March to October and takes place at the same sites year after year by groups of orange wrasses. Males are particularly aggressive towards other fish during this period.

Orange wrasses feed on a variety of invertebrates, hermit and other crabs, shrimps, and amphipods.

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