New Zealand banded wrasse
Encyclopedia
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
. Aging work in New Zealand suggested banded wrasse can live to at least 35 years.
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 are a generalist predator with powerful canine teeth that enable them to remove chiton
s, limpet
s and barnacle
s from rocks. They can also crush and eat mollusks, crab
s and sea urchin
s. There are size specific changes in their diet. Small fish (100-180 mm) eat mostly amphipods and isopods, whereas larger fish (> 180 mm) eat mainly bivalves, crabs, and gastropods.
Banded wrasse are asynchronous spawners and follow the typical labrid spring-summer seasonal pattern of reproduction from July to December. Compared with other New Zealand labrids that are protogynous hermaphrodites, the banded wrasse was found to be a secondary gonochorist, where individuals change sex before maturation. It is a dichromatic species but not sexually dimorphic. It is also monandric where only one morphological male type is present. Despite finding no transitional gonads, it is still possible that particular environmental or social conditions could induce sex change in at least a small proportion of fishes.
These fish may be caught on a handline and fight well.
Wrasse
The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 82 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes....
of the genus Notolabrus
Notolabrus
Notolabrus is a genus of wrasses in the family Labridae.- Species :* Spotty, Notolabrus celidotus * Girdled wrasse, Notolabrus cinctus...
, found in the Eastern Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, off eastern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and all around New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
on rocky weedy reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
areas. Its length is between 30 and 60 cm and large specimens, which might be over 25 years old, weigh almost 5 kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
. Aging work in New Zealand suggested banded wrasse can live to at least 35 years.
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 are a generalist predator with powerful canine teeth that enable them to remove chiton
Chiton
Chitons are small to large, primitive marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....
s, limpet
Limpet
Limpet is a common name for a number of different kinds of saltwater and freshwater snails ; it is applied to those snails that have a simple shell which is more or less conical in shape, and either is not spirally coiled, or appears not to be coiled in the adult snails.The name limpet is most...
s and barnacle
Barnacle
A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile suspension feeders, and have...
s from rocks. They can also crush and eat mollusks, crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s and sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
s. There are size specific changes in their diet. Small fish (100-180 mm) eat mostly amphipods and isopods, whereas larger fish (> 180 mm) eat mainly bivalves, crabs, and gastropods.
Banded wrasse are asynchronous spawners and follow the typical labrid spring-summer seasonal pattern of reproduction from July to December. Compared with other New Zealand labrids that are protogynous hermaphrodites, the banded wrasse was found to be a secondary gonochorist, where individuals change sex before maturation. It is a dichromatic species but not sexually dimorphic. It is also monandric where only one morphological male type is present. Despite finding no transitional gonads, it is still possible that particular environmental or social conditions could induce sex change in at least a small proportion of fishes.
These fish may be caught on a handline and fight well.