The wrasses are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

, Labridae, of marine

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into 9 subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, most of them less than long, although the largest, the humphead wrasse, can measure up to . They are efficient carnivores, feeding on a wide range of small

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

. Many smaller wrasses follow the feeding trails of larger fish, picking up invertebrates disturbed by their passing. Juveniles of some representatives of the genera '' Bodianus'', '' Epibulus'', '' Cirrhilabrus'', '' Oxycheilinus'', and '' Paracheilinus'' hide among the tentacles of the free-living mushroom corals & '' Heliofungia actiniformis''. The word "wrasse" comes from the Cornish word ''wragh'', a lenited form of ''gwragh'', meaning an old woman or hag, via

Cornish dialect The Cornish dialect (also known as Cornish English, Cornu-English, kw, Sowsnek Kernowek) is a dialect of English spoken in Cornwall by Cornish people. Dialectal English spoken in Cornwall is to some extent influenced by Cornish grammar, and o ...

''wrath''. It is related to the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

''gwrach'' and Breton ''gwrac'h''.

Distribution

Most wrasses inhabit the tropical and subtropical waters of the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

, and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

s, though some species live in temperate waters: the Ballan wrasse is found as far north as Norway. Wrasses are usually found in shallow-water habitats such as

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

s and rocky shores, where they live close to the substrate.

Anatomy

Wrasses have protractile mouths, usually with separate jaw teeth that jut outwards. Many species can be readily recognized by their thick lips, the inside of which is sometimes curiously folded, a peculiarity which gave rise to the German name of "lip-fishes" (''Lippfische''), and the Dutch name of ''lipvissen''. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

has eight to 21 spines and six to 21

soft rays Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology ...

, usually running most of the length of the back. Wrasses are sexually dimorphic. Many species are capable of changing sex. Juveniles are a mix of males and females (known as initial-phase individuals), but the largest adults become territory-holding (terminal-phase) males. The wrasses have become a primary study species in fish-feeding biomechanics due to their jaw structures. The nasal and mandibular bones are connected at their posterior ends to the rigid neurocranium, and the superior and inferior articulations of the

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

are joined to the anterior tips of these two bones, respectively, creating a loop of four rigid bones connected by moving joints. This " four-bar linkage" has the property of allowing numerous arrangements to achieve a given mechanical result (fast

jaw protrusion Most bony fishes have two sets of jaws made mainly of bone. The primary oral jaws open and close the mouth, and a second set of pharyngeal jaws are positioned at the back of the throat. The oral jaws are used to capture and manipulate prey by b ...

or a forceful bite), thus decoupling morphology from function. The actual morphology of wrasses reflects this, with many lineages displaying different jaw morphology that results in the same functional output in a similar or identical ecological niche.

Reproductive behavior

Most labrids are protogynous

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have ...

s within a haremic mating system. A good example of this reproductive behavior is seen in the California sheephead. Hermaphroditism allows for complex mating systems. Labroids exhibit three different mating systems:

polygynous Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any ...

, lek-like, and promiscuous. Group spawning and pair spawning occur within mating systems. The type of spawning that occurs depends on male body size. Labroids typically exhibit

broadcast spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...

, releasing high numbers of

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cruc ...

ic eggs, which are broadcast by tidal currents; adult labroids have no interaction with offspring. Wrasses of a particular subgroup of the family Labridae, Labrini, do not exhibit broadcast spawning. Sex change in wrasses is generally female-to-male, but experimental conditions have allowed for male-to-female sex change. Placing two male ''Labroides dimidiatus'' wrasses in the same tank results in the smaller of the two becoming female again. Additionally, while the individual to change sex is generally the largest female, evidence also exists of the largest female instead "choosing" to remain female in situations in which she can maximize her evolutionary fitness by refraining from changing sex.

Broodcare behavior of the tribe

The subgroup Labrini arose from a basal split within family Labridae during the Eocene period. Subgroup Labrini is composed of eight genera, wherein 15 of 23 species exhibit broodcare behavior, which ranges from simple to complex parental care of spawn; males build algae nests or crude cavities, ventilate eggs, and defend nests against conspecific males and predators. In species that express this behavior, eggs cannot survive without parental care. Species of ''

Symphodus ''Symphodus'' is a genus of wrasses native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Species The currently recognized species in this genus are: * '' Symphodus bailloni'' (Valenciennes, 1839) (Baillon's wrasse) * '' Symphodus caer ...

, Centrolabrus'', and ''

Labrus ''Labrus'' is a genus of wrasses native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean and Black seas. Species The four currently recognized species in this genus are: * '' Labrus bergylta'' Ascanius, 1767 (Ballan wrasse) * '' Labrus merul ...

'' genera exhibit broodcare behavior.

Cleaner wrasse

Cleaner wrasses are the best-known of the cleaner fish. They live in a

cleaning symbiosis Cleaning symbiosis is a mutually beneficial association between individuals of two species, where one (the cleaner) removes and eats parasites and other materials from the surface of the other (the client). Cleaning symbiosis is well-known amon ...

with larger, often predatory, fish, grooming them and benefiting by consuming what they remove. "Client" fish congregate at wrasse " cleaning stations" and wait for the cleaner fish to remove gnathiid parasites, the cleaners even swimming into their open mouths and gill cavities to do so. A single wrasse works for around four hours a day, and in that time, it can inspect more than 2,000 clients."The Fish That Makes Other Fish Smarter"
by Ed Yong, ''The Atlantic'', March 7, 2018 Cleaner wrasses are best known for feeding on dead tissue, scales, and

ectoparasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...

s, although they are also known to ' cheat', consuming healthy tissue and mucus, which is energetically costly for the client fish to produce. The bluestreak cleaner wrasse, ''Labroides dimidiatus'', is one of the most common cleaners found on tropical reefs. Few cleaner wrasses have been observed being eaten by predators, possibly because parasite removal is more important for predator survival than the short-term gain of eating the cleaner. When cleaner wrasses were experimentally removed from a reef in Australia, the total number of fish species halved, and their numbers fell by three-quarters. Also, some evidence, from another Australian study, shows that cleaned fish are smarter than those not served by the wrasse. According to a 2019 study, cleaner wrasses have become the first fish ever observed to pass the mirror test. However, the test's inventor, American psychologist Gordon G. Gallup, has said that the fish were most likely trying to scrape off a perceived parasite on another fish and that they did not demonstrate self-recognition. The authors of the study retorted that because the fish checked themselves in the mirror before and after the scraping, this meant that the fish had self-awareness and recognized that their reflections belonged to their own bodies.

Tool use

Studies show that some wrasse species are capable of

tool use Tool use by animals is a phenomenon in which an animal uses any kind of tool in order to achieve a goal such as acquiring food and water, grooming, defence, communication, recreation or construction. Originally thought to be a skill possessed o ...

, using rocks to smash open sea urchins.

Significance to humans

In the Western Atlantic coastal region of North America, the most common food species for indigenous humans was the tautog, a species of wrasse. Wrasses today are commonly found in both public and home aquaria. Some species are small enough to be considered

reef safe Reef safe is a distinction used in the saltwater aquarium hobby to indicate that a fish or invertebrate is safe to add to a reef aquarium. There is no fish that is completely reef safe. Every fish that is commonly listed as reef safe are species th ...

. They may also be employed as cleaner fish to combat sea-lice infestations in salmon farms. Commercial fish farming of cleaner wrasse for sea-lice pest control in commercial salmon farming has developed in Scotlan
as lice busters
with apparent commercial benefit and viability.

Parasites

As all fish, labrids are the

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman *Michel Host ...

of a number of parasites. A list of 338 parasite taxa from 127 labrid fish species was provided by Muñoz and Diaz in 2015.Muñoz G., Diaz P.E. 2015: Checklist of parasites of labrid fishes (Pisces: Labridae). Viña del Mar, Chile
PDF
An example is the

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant- parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a bro ...

Huffmanela ossicola ''Huffmanela ossicola'' is a parasitic nematode. It has been observed in the branchial arch bone and the spinal cord bone (as well as others) of the labrid marine fishes '' Bodianus loxozonus'', '' Bodianus busellatus'' and '' Bodianus perdit ...

''.

Gallery

Image:Giant Napoleon Wrasse in Shark Point Dive Site, Apo Reef, Philippines.jpg, Giant Napoleon wrasse '' Cheilinus undulatus'' in Apo Reef,

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Image:Humphead wrasse melb aquarium.jpg, Humphead wrasse, '' Cheilinus undulatus'', Melbourne Aquarium Image:Coris gaimard real.jpg, Yellowtail wrasse, '' Coris gaimard'',

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Image:Coris_gaimard_and_Labroides_phthirophagus.JPG, A yellowtail coris wrasse, ''Coris gaimard'', is being cleaned by ''

Labroides phthirophagus The Hawaiian cleaner wrasse or golden cleaner wrasse (''Labroides phthirophagus''), is a species of wrasse ( genus ''Labroides'') found in the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. The fish is endemic to Hawaii. These cleaner fish inhabit c ...

'' in

. Image:Bird Wrasse.jpg, Bird wrasse, ''

Gomphosus varius The bird wrasse, ''Gomphosus varius'', is a species of the wrasse family. Description The bird wrasse is a medium-sized fish which can reach a standard length of . It has an elongated body, laterally compressed, with a truncated tail and a long ...

'', Kona (Hawaii) Image:Gomphosus.jpg, ''

'' Image:Birdmouth wrasse.jpg, '' Gomphosus caeruleus'' swimming with a

yellow goatfish The yellow goatfish (''Mulloidichthys martinicus''), also known as yellowsaddle, is a species of goatfish native to the Atlantic Ocean around the coasts of Africa and the Americas. This species can reach a total length of , but most reach length ...

Image:Bluhead Wrasse.jpg, Bluehead wrasse, Belize Barrier Reef Image:Clown wrasse coris aygula.JPG, Clown wrasse, '' Coris aygula'',

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

Image:Anampses cuvieri.jpg, Pearl wrasse, '' Anampses cuvieri'',

Image:Ladim u0.gif, Bluestreak wrasse, ''

Labroides dimidiatus The bluestreak cleaner wrasse, ''Labroides dimidiatus'', is one of several species of cleaner wrasses found on coral reefs from East Africa, Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to French Polynesia. Like other cleaner wrasses, it eats parasites and dea ...

'' Image:Six-line wrasse.jpg, Six-line wrasse '', Pseudocheilinus hexataenia'' File:A history of Scandinavian fishes (9661319663).jpg, Cuckoo wrasse by

Wilhelm von Wright Wilhelm von Wright (5 April 1810 – 2 July 1887) was a Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-Finnish painter and amateur naturalist. Biography Wilhelm von Wright was born at the village of Haminalahti in Kuopio, Finland. His ance ...

Classification

Subgroups and tribes

Genera

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px Period = from:-65.5 till:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-65.5 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-65.5 TimeAxis = orientation:hor AlignBars = justify Colors = #legends id:CAR value:claret id:ANK value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196) id:HER value:teal id:HAD value:green id:OMN value:blue id:black value:black id:white value:white id:cenozoic value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258) id:paleogene value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32) id:paleocene value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37) id:eocene value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42) id:oligocene value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48) id:neogene value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1) id:miocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0) id:pliocene value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68) id:quaternary value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5) id:pleistocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68) id:holocene value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88) BarData= bar:eratop bar:space bar:periodtop bar:space bar:NAM1 bar:NAM2 bar:NAM3 bar:NAM4 bar:NAM5 bar:NAM6 bar:NAM7 bar:space bar:period bar:space bar:era PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(7,-4) bar:periodtop from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pala ...

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', ...

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but t ...

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:eratop from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text: Neogene from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q. PlotData= align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left color:eocene bar:NAM1 from: -55.8 till: 0 text: Labrodon color:eocene bar:NAM2 from: -55.8 till: 0 text:

color:eocene bar:NAM3 from: -48.6 till: 0 text:

color:oligocene bar:NAM4 from: -33.9 till: 0 text: Cheilinus color:miocene bar:NAM5 from: -15.97 till: 0 text: Bodianus color:pliocene bar:NAM6 from: -5.332 till: 0 text: Oxyjulis color:pleistocene bar:NAM7 from: -2.588 till: 0 text: Pimelometopon PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 bar:period from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text: Pleist. from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:era from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text: Neogene from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.

References

External links

FishBase info for Labridae

Male and Female Images or Rock Wrasse Fish
* Smith, J.L.B. 1957
List of the fishes of the Family Labridae in the Western Indian Ocean
Ichthyological Bulletin; No. 7. Department of Ichthyology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. * {{Authority control Labriformes Taxa named by Georges Cuvier Articles which contain graphical timelines