''Gomphosus caeruleus'', the green birdmouth wrasse, is a species of

wrasse The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine ray-finned fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, ...

belonging to the family Labridae. It can be found in the

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade.

Distribution and habitat

This tropical

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of wrasse is native to the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, from East

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

south to Natal, South Africa, and east to the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated f ...

. It occurs on rocky reefs and coral, especially in coral-rich areas of lagoon and seaward reefs, between depths of .

Description

''Gomphosus caeruleus'' can reach a length of about , with a distinctive 'beak-like' snout. It is sexually dimorphic; the males are dark blue overall, with a light blue edge running along their

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s and lime green

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

and

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

s. Females, on the other hand, have a dark strip through the eye and yellow anal and

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

s. Juveniles are pale, with a dusky streak from their snout through the eye and onto the body. This species can be told apart from the similar birdnose 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 ...

'' by their different distributions and by the fact that in the later species, males have a bright green stripe along the flanks, females do not have a yellow tail and juveniles have a green back. There are 8 spines and 13 soft rays in the dorsal fin while the anal fin has 3 spines and 11 soft rays.

Ecology

Diet

''Gomphosus caeruleus'' feeds on small invertebrates.

Breeding

Very little is known about the reproductive habits of this species.

Species description

''Gomphosus caeruleus'' was formally described in 1801 by Bernard Germain de Lacépède in the third volume of his ''Histoire naturelle des poissons'' from

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

collected by

Philibert Commerson Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769. ...

(1727-1773). No type locality was given, but now it is known to be Mauritius.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3642737 caeruleus Fish described in 1801 Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède