#labridae

[herpsandbirds]

Slippery Dick (Halichoeres bivittatus), family Labridae, order Labriformes, found in the tropical western Atlantic

Like many wrasses, this fish is a protogynous hermaphrodite, starting life as a female, and becoming male later in life.

photograph by Florent Charpin

[snototter]

A male slingjaw wrasse (Epibulus insidiator)

by Alain Feulvarch

[internetdruid]

🥚💕

Carpenter's flasher wrasse!

(Paracheilinus carpenteri)

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Let's Hear it for the Humphead Wrasse

The humphead wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus, is also known as the Māori wrasse, Napoleon wrasse, or the blue- tooth grouper. They can usually be found around coral reefs and steep rocky cliffs in the Indo-Pacific, particularly on the east coast of Africa, the west coast of India, and the tropical waters of southeast Asia and the Great Barrier Reef.

The Māori wrasse gets its name from the distinctive markings that adults carry. Males are blue-green or purple, while females are more often red or orange. Both have unique patterns of lines and dots covering their heads, and stripes running down the rest of their body; early researchers compared the patterns on their heads to the tattoos traditionally used by the Māori people. In addition to its striking coloration, C. undulatus is also known for being the largest member of the wrasse family. Males can reach up to 2 m (6.5 ft) long and weigh up to 180 kg (396 lbs), while females tend to be smaller. Males also have a large 'hump' on their foreheads, hence the name humphead wrasse.

Another feature of note in C. undulatus is the set of large teeth fused into a parrot-like beak. They use this beak to predate upon hard-shelled animals like mollusks, urchins, sea stars, and crustaceans. On occasion, they also feed on smaller fish and moray eels. Due to their size, adults have very few natural predators aside from sharks, but larvae and small juveniles are more often opportunistically hunted by other fish.

Like many coral reef fish, the humphead wrasse is a protogynous hermaphrodite. This means that most individuals begin life as a female, and become male later in life-- known as 'super males', they are larger than males who did not transition. Individuals first become sexually mature at 5-7 years old, and females begin transitioning to male at 9-12 years old. Spawning occurs a few times a year, and during this period over a hundred adults can congregate in an area. The female releases about 20 eggs into the water column, where they are fertilized by her chosen partner. Three to four weeks later, the eggs hatch and the larvae migrate to the nearby reef.

Conservation status: C. undulatus is considered Endangered by the IUCN. Populations have declined due to overfishing and by-catch mortalities, loss of their food sources, habitat destruction, and capture of juveniles for the aquarium trade.

If you send me proof that you’ve made a donation to UNRWA or another organization benefiting Palestinians– including esim donations– I’ll make art of any animal of your choosing.

Photos

Andrew J. Green

Lluís Masuet

George Ryschkewitsch

[podartists]

The Beautiful Sparus, Sparus formosus [Pl. 31] | The Naturalist's Miscellany v.1 | Biodiversity Heritage Library | Flickr

[faunalregion]

[drhoz]

#1965 - Bodianus unimaculatus - Red Pigfish

AKA red hogfish, eastern pigfish, Banded Pigfish, Black-spot Pigfish, Eastern Blackspot Pigfish, and Reddish Blackspot Pigfish.

photo by @purrdence​ 

A species of wrasse (Labridae) native from eastern Australia to New Zealand, including Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and the Kermadec Islands. They live in coastal reefs and offshore waters down to a depths of about 60m.

Males of this species can reach half a meter in size, while females only reach 30 cm.

I don’t know why they’re called pigfish - there are certainly other unrelated fish with the same common name that can grunt loudly when distressed by grinding their pharyngeal teeth together, but I don’t know if these do.

... oh. They’re pink and have a snoot. Of course. 

[haveyouseenthisanimal-irl]

Range: Waters around New Zealand

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: California Sheephead Wrasse

A lot of people through history and the modern day have an overly simplistic view about sex, both in the sense of biological sex (that is, what gametes something produces) and sex as in the act of mating. A lot of people think that sex is just a strict binary between males and females, but nature is far more diverse and varied than that (even in humans. Intersex people do exist after all). Today I'm showcasing one of the animals that completely goes against the alleged sex binary: the California Sheephead Wrasse. And yes, this is a pride post.

(Image: a male California Sheephead Wrasse in a tank in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is a large fish with a bulbous head. The head and tail are black, midsection is pink, and the belly and chin are white. End ID)

The California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) is a large fish in the Wrasse family of Labridae. They are sexually dimorphic, with the males and females appearing distinct from each other in size, shape, and color. Males are larger than females, reaching up to 91 cm (3 ft) and 16 kg (35 lbs), though there is quite a bit of size variation based on food availability. They have flatter faces than females thanks to a bulbous bump on the forehead. This lump is the namesake of the fish, since it allegedly make it look like it has a sheep's head. I personally don't see it at all. Males have black heads and tails with a white chin and underbelly and pink midsection Females are smaller and colored silvery to a dull pink all over except for their white chins and underbellies. There isn't really a maximum size or weight for females for reasons I'll get into later. The fish have large canine teeth that protrude from the mouth and modified throat bones that form a grinding apparatus called the throat plate.

(Image: a female California Sheephead. It has a less bulbous head than the male and is a pale pink all over, except for the white belly and chin. End ID)

Sheepheads, like many wrasses, are sequential hermaphrodites. A sequential hermaphrodite can transition between sexes during its life (as opposed to a simultaneous hermaphrodite, who can produce both sperm and eggs at the same time). Every California Sheephead is born female and some will become male later in life, making them protogynous. Protogyny is the most common form of hermaphroditism in fish, with over 75% of known sequentially hermaphroditic fish species being protogynous. This transition is a one-way process, males will not turn back into females. The transition is triggered by a number of factors, primarily size and the local availability of males. If there are not enough males in the area, the largest female will transition to male to fill the role. This transition takes between 2 weeks and a few months depending on availability of food and other conditions (temperature seems to play a role) and the fish will be capable of producing sperm before fully assuming the male morphology.

(Image a male and female Sheephead swimming next to each other. The female is roughly half the size of the male. End ID)

During mating season (July-September), males will pick a territory and claim all nearby females as mates. A younger male without a territory may challenge an alpha male to try to claim his territory. These fights are often resolved with threat posturing, but if neither male backs down, they will fight with biting and raking teeth against the opponent. During mating season, females will release batches of 375,000 eggs almost daily for males to fertilize. During this time, the alpha male will patrol his territory to mate as much as possible while chasing off smaller males who may attempt to sneakily fertilize some of his female's eggs. The larvae are planktonic for their first 34-78 days, and will sink as they grow. Juveniles have a different coloration to the adults. They are orange, with a white stripe running down the body and dark spots on the fins. The average maximum age of a California Sheephead is 21 years, but the oldest individual on record was 53 at the time of capture.

(Image: a juvenile Sheephead. It is a small, orange fish with a white stripe running from eye to tail and black spots on the pelvic, anal, dorsal, and tail fins. End ID)

The California Sheephead lives on rocky reefs and kelp forests from southern California to the Baja peninsula and Gulf of California. They prefer shallow water between 3 and 30 meters (10 - 100 ft) deep, though males will occasionally venture deeper. Sheepheads are predators that hunt hard-bodies invertebrates including urchins, shelled molluscs, and crabs. Juveniles hunt smaller prey such as sponges, bryozoans, and barnacles. The protruding canines give the fish a better grip when trying to pry food off of rocks. They crush the hard shells of the prey with sharp teeth before swallowing. The shells are then further ground down by the throat plates. Smaller individuals have been known to break open urchins too large to bit by picking them up and hammering them into rocks. Sheepheads play an important role in kelp forest ecosystems by keeping urchin populations down. Urchins eat kelp and without predators keeping their numbers in check, can reduce kelp forests to urchin barrens. Sheepheads are known to have a high site fidelity, meaning they will return to the same places over and over. They will maintains a sleeping spot (usually a crevice they can hide in or rock they can hide under) and return to the same places to hunt. They are diurnal and return to their sleeping spots at night to avoid predators.

(Image: a male Sheephead trying to pick up a sea urchin with tis mouth. End ID)

California Sheephead Wrasses are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. Their primary threat is overfishing. The Sheepheads have been commercially fished since the 1800s and their numbers have dropped. The hermaphroditic nature of the species actually makes things worse. Commercial fishers are incentivized to catch the largest fish and the largest Sheepheads are the males and females that are likely to transition to male. Unlike with other species, there aren't small males around to make up for the loss of large males to fishing since the small fish are the females. The loss of males and the largest females (who are the ones most likely to transition to male) means there aren't enough males around during mating season to keep the population high enough. The introduction of marine protected areas and fishing regulations have helped the population recover. The loss of the Sheepheads is a big deal since they're one of the species doing the most to keep the kelp forests healthy by eating urchins. Natural predators of the Sheepheads include sharks, sea lions, and giant sea bass.

(Image: a fisherman holding a male Sheephead on a boat. The large canines of the fish are particularly visible. End ID)

[herpsandbirds]

Fish size themselves up in a mirror to decide if they can win a fight

Cleaner wrasse use their reflection to build a mental image of their body size, which they use to compare themselves to rivals before picking a fight

Before deciding whether or not to fight another fish, cleaner wrasse check their own reflection in a mirror and size themselves up. Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) are remarkably bright. These finger-sized coral reef fish were the first fish to pass the mirror test, a common assessment to see whether an animal recognises that the reflection is of its own body and not another animal. Researchers have now found that these wrasses use their likeness to construct a mental image of their body size, which they can compare to others...

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2447414-fish-size-themselves-up-in-a-mirror-to-decide-if-they-can-win-a-fight

[snototter]

A cigar wrasse (Cheilio inermis) in Tahiti, French Polynesia

by François Libert

[dougdimmadodo]

Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus)

Family: Wrasse Family (Labridae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Vulnerable

Named for its elongated snout which it uses to root through sediment in search of crabs and other seabed-dwelling prey, the Hogfish is a unique species of wrasse native to the western Atlantic Ocean, where it mainly inhabits areas near coral reefs (particularly reefs dominated by soft corals.) All Hogfishes are born as females, but as they progress through their lives some may develop into males upon reaching older age; members of this species live in small schools consisting of numerous small females and a single large male (which can be distinguished from the females around him by his larger size, darker colouration, longer fin spines and the distinctive black spot near the base of his tail,) responsible for fertilizing all the group's eggs, and in the event of the school's male dying or otherwise being separated from the rest of the group the largest, oldest remaining female will lose the ability to lay eggs, increase in size, develop the colouration of a male and gain the ability to produce sperm, taking his place. In addition to changing in colouration when changing sex, Hogfishes are also known to be capable of changing colour in order to avoid detection by predators (taking on duller colouration to match their surroundings upon spotting predators such as Sand Tiger Sharks,) and surprisingly it seems this colour-changing ability is managed purely by the chromatophores (colour-changing cells) in their skin with little input from the brain, as the skin will continue to change colour to match its surroundings for a short period even after being removed from the fish's body.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49432-Lachnolaimus-maximus

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Once in a Blue Moon: The Bluehead Wrasse

The bluehead wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum) is a small species of wrasse found only in the western Atlantic Ocean; particularly around the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America. They inhabit coral reefs, and occasionally along sandy bottoms and sea grass meadows. Bluehead wrasse prefer shallow, warm, clear water and reefs with lots of hiding places that they can easily access.

T. bifasciatum is noted for its bright coloration. Females and small males are bright yellow with a white underbelly, while larger males have a greenish body and a blue head, seperated by thick black and white stripes. These large males are typically 7-8 cm (2.7-3.1 in) in length, while smaller males and females are around 6 cm (2.3 in).

Like many coral reef fish species, the bluehead wrasse engages in protogyny. All eggs hatch as females, and as they mature some change into males. These young males, known as initial phase (IP) males, continue to resemble females but are fully capable of reproduction. Eventually, the largest of them transition into a secondary phase, also known as the terminal phase (TP). TP males carry the characteristic blue and green markings of bluehead wrasse, and are significantly larger. The transition from female to IP, IP to TP, or even directly from female to TP can occur at any time, and is particularly triggered by removal of dominant (TP) males from a population.

Reproduction typically occurs from January to August, though it can continue sporadically throughout the year. Mature adults participate in group spawns, in which females and both male types converge at spawning sites. Males compete for proximity to females, and typically TP males will closely guard access to a harem of 30-50 females, while IP males will attempt to use their coloring to sneak in and mate surreptitiously. T. bifasciatum are broadcast spawners; both sexes release their gametes into the water column, where they are fertilized and carried away by the current.

Eggs spend 6-8 months free floating, sometimes drifting miles from their spawning grounds. After hatching into juveniles (larvae), they burrow into the sand and remain there for several months before emerging to seek out a coral reef in which to shelter. At this point, a year after hatching, they are typically mature and ready to mate themselves. Individuals can live up to 3 years in the wild, though juvenile mortality is high.

Bluehead wrasse are cleaner fish. The majority of their food are parasites picked off of larger fish, as well as shrimp, krill, crustaceans, and plankton gathered from the coral itself. However, they are also often food themselves for larger fish, moray eels, and stingrays.

Conservation status: The IUCN considers the bluehead wrasse to be Least Concern. Their primary threat is habitat loss due to coral reef bleaching.

If you like what I do, consider buying me a ko-fi!

Photos

Doug Perrine

Terence Zahner

Nick Hobgood

[podartists]

The Ancient Wrasse | The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea (1856) | Philip Henry Gosse

[overdoso]

Há uma grande variedade de peixes que apresentam esse comportamento, como vários membros das famílias Labridae, Cichlidae, Siluriformes e Gobiidae. Os peixes limpadores, comuns nos aquários, estabelecem uma relação de mutualismo com outros peixes maiores (ou humanos?), em que removem tecidos mortos ou parasitas do corpo destes 'clientes'.

[fubberio-yaps-about-fish]

First Fish Yap Post - Labridae!

I figure it fit for the first post in this blog to be about my favourite fish family ever - Labridae - the wrasses, parrotfishes and cales.

Introduction Labridae is a diverse (and extremely cool!) family of fishes, encompassing nearly 700 species, and occur in tropical and temperate marine waters worldwide - none inhabit freshwater. Typically, they are elongate, small to medium in size and colourful, and the greatest species diversity is found on tropical coral reefs.

This green fellow is Thalassoma lunare - the Moon Wrasse. By all means, a fairly 'typical' wrasse.

Taxonomy The number of species included within Labridae has increased over time, not only by the description of new species, but also from species from other families being reclassified as members of Labridae - notably, the parrotfishes (formerly family Scaridae) and the cales (formerly family Odacidae). The parrotfishes and cales were always considered to be close relatives of Labridae, but genetic studies have shown that these groups are deeply nested within Labridae, and thus should be classified in this family. The closest living relatives of Labridae, based on genetic evidence, appears to be the curious family Centrogenyidae, the false scorpionfishes.

This is Scarus rivulatus - the Surf Parrotfish. Formerly placed in the family Scaridae, but along with all other parrotfishes, is now included in Labridae

Siphonognathus caninis - the Sharp-nosed Weed-whiting. Formerly placed in Odacidae (a family of temperate marine fishes found only in southern Australia and New Zealand), but along with all other Odacidae species is now included in Labridae.

Diets and Feeding This is where the labrids really get interesting. The vast majority of labrids are carnivorous - typically subsisting on crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrate prey. The 'typical' carnivorous wrasses possess simple, peglike teeth to break down their (often shelled) prey, but many groups show interesting specialisations to the mouth, jaws and teeth to exploit other food sources.

The aforementioned parrotfishes and cales are largely herbivorous, and have specialised tooth structures to facilitate this diet - in parrotfishes, their teeth have fused into a thick, parrot-like beak to scrape algae from rocks. In doing this, the top layer of rock is also scraped off and ingested, to be later excreted as the fine white sand on tropical beaches that humans find so appealing. So next time you find yourself on a gorgeous tropical beach, don't forget that you're standing on a giant accumulated mound of parrotfish poo! The cales take a similar but different approach to herbivory - they too have fused beaklike teeth, but use them like a pair of garden shears to clip mouthfuls of algae and seaweed.

Some wrasses are plankivorous, aggregating in shoals that hover at the edge of the reef to pick at plankton floating by on the currents - this guild includes the likes of the genus Cirrhilabrus and smaller species of Thalassoma.

The Slingjaw Wrasse (Epibulus insidiator) has a most unusual mouth structure that allows it to massively extend it's jaws, forming a frankly absurd tubelike structure to allow it to slurp up small fish and shrimp that may be hiding in small crevices. The ability to protrude the mouth out like this is common amongst ray-finned fishes, but few can do so to the ridiculous extent of the Slingjaw Wrasse. I HIGHLY recommend looking up a video of the slingjaw in action, it's super cool.

Epibulus indidiator (Slingjaw Wrasse) showing off it's frankly absurd jaw protrusion. When the jaws are retracted, they sit flat against the rest of the head.

The various species of tubelip wrasses are specialists on a very strange diet - the mucus secreted by corals. As the name suggests, these fishes have unusually long and fleshy lips that come together to form a sealed tube, with which the fish uses to create a tight seal against a piece of coral and sucks up the mucus.

Labrichthys unilineatus, one such species of tubelip wrasse. Look at those lips!

Perhaps the best-known feeding specialisation in wrasses is that of species that clean other fishes of parasites, food waste and dead skin. Many wrasse species engage in cleaning behaviour as juveniles, but a few (such as the genus Labroides, the well-known 'cleaner wrasses') continue this behaviour into adulthood, and make it their primary source of sustenance. These small, striped wrasses will set up 'cleaning stations' on the reef, attended by one or more cleaner wrasses - typically, a reef with have several of these stations. Most sedentary fish species will simply visit the cleaning station closest to their territory, but wider-ranging species are willing to travel considerable distance to visit the stations that offer the best service, so competition between cleaning stations is fierce to provide the best services to win these picky customers. The cleaner wrasses will give preferential treatment to non-local fish to win their favour, and can individually recognise hundreds of fishy customers from different species. Even large, predatory fish species are accepted customers, and the cleaner wrasses will happily enter the mouths and gills of groupers, sharks and eels to clean them. Only on very rare occasions will such a predator eat a cleaner wrasse - the benefit of the wrasse's cleaning services is greater to the predator than the immediate caloric benefit of consuming the wrasse, so the wrasse can swim straight into the mouth of predatory fish with impunity.

Labroides dimidiatus (Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse), the best-known species of the genus Labroides.

Sex-swapping and Reproductive Strategies An extremely interesting (but not entirely unique) trait of the wrasses is their ability to change sex, and the reproductive systems this enables. Almost all wrasses are born females, and can become male later in life. Often, juvenile female wrasses will join harems, consisting of numerous juveniles and adult females, and a single male. In these harems, there is a strict dominance hierarchy, with each fish harassing those lower in the ranks than itself. This constant low-level stress inhibits the hormone production that would cause a female wrasse to transition into a male - except for the most dominant fish, which is free to transform into a male. Usually, the dominant male will bear different colouration and patterning to the other fish in the harem, making the boss easy to pick out from the rest. The dominant male in a wrasse harem will frequently spawn with the adult females. However, if the dominant fish is removed from the harem (eg. if he dies, or is kicked out after losing a dominance contest to another wrasse), the most dominant female will become male to take his place. The behavioural change is almost instantaneous - the new dominant fish will become more aggressive - but the change in colouration and gonads can take a few weeks to a few months.

Female Thalassoma amblycephalum (Blunthead Wrasse)

Dominant male of the same species. It's easy to see how often, male and female of the same wrasse species can be incorrectly identified as being different species - even by scientists!

Intelligence and Tool Use Perhaps, 'intelligent' is not a word often used to describe fishes, but wrasses would certainly be among the brainiest of the fishes. The previously mentioned Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse is one of the few fish to have demonstrated self-awareness via the mirror test (although the mirror test has rarely been attempted on fishes, so perhaps the number of self-aware fish out there is higher than we realise), and several wrasse species (particularly the tuskfishes of the genus Choerodon) have been observed to use tools. Tuskfishes have a pretty fearsome set of teeth that they use to break through the shells of their prey, but that alone is not enough to break the thickest of clam shells - so they use tools to smash the clams. A tuskfish, upon finding a clam too solid to bite through, will carry it in it's mouth to a habitually used rock or knob of coral, and with the clam still in it's mouth, flick it's head to hit the clam against the rock to break it. Only rarely does this work the first try, but the tuskfish is persistent, and will repeatedly hit the clam until it breaks, allowing the fish entry to consume the flesh inside.

Choerodon anchorago (Anchor Tuskfish), one species that has been observed to use tools to break open clam shells.

Sleep Labrids have some pretty interesting behaviours to avoid being eaten while they sleep (although it could be argued fish do not truly 'sleep', saying 'sleep-like resting state' every time is too wordy so I'll just say 'sleep'). Many species will burrow into the sand to sleep, to hide from predators - a behaviour that can be alarming to the beginner saltwater aquarist, who may be terrified to find that their newly-acquired wrasse has suddenly dissappeared when the tank lights are turned off! Other species (especially the parrotfishes) produce a bubble of mucus to sleep in, like a sleeping bag made of snot. They make a new bubble every night, the purpose of which is to conceal the fish's scent from predators as it sleeps in a crevice or under a head of coral, as well as to prevent parasites settling on the fish's skin. In the morning, the fish will eat it's way out of it's mucus bubble.

A parrotfish (I'm not sure which species exactly) sleeping in it's mucus bubble.

Oh, and did I mention that some wrasses are drop-dead GORGEOUS???? Just LOOK at these

Cirrhilabrus hygroxerus - Monsoon Fairy Wrasse

Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura - Blueside Fairy Wrasse. This colour form of the species with the yellow spot on the flanks was previously considered a seperate species (Cirrhilabrus ryukyuensis), but has been reclassified as a colour variant of C. cyanopleura.

Macropharyngodon meleagris - Leopard Wrasse

Gomphosus varius - Pacific Bird Wrasse. Boy, why you so nose??

Cheilinus undulatus - Humphead Maori Wrasse. This is the largest species in the family Labridae (reaching a whopping 2.3 metres!), and unfortunately also one of the most threatened - it is heavily fished for the seafood trade, and it's slow growth makes it easily overharvested.

Lachnolaimus maximus - Hogfish