Common Name: Southern Tubelip

Distribution: Rare in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Western Pacific region: Solomon Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia and Tonga. In Australia recorded from around Exmouth and offshore reefs in north Western Australia, the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to northern New South Wales.

Ecological Notes: Frequents shallow reef areas with high coral cover, depth range from 2 to 55 m.

Additional Notes: Adults feed on coral polyps, juveniles (lower photo) observed cleaning other fish species. Females (top) with grey head and brownish yellow body. Males dark bluish grey head and golden brown body. Grows to 10 cm.

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.322.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=labropsis+australis. Accessed 02/06/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Labropsis-australis.html. Accessed 02/06/18.