Common Name: Two Tone Wrasse

Distribution: Abundant in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region: from Somalia and South Africa, to the Line, Marquesan and Tuamoto Islands, north to southern Japan, south to northern New Zealand, Rapa and Lord Howe Islands. In Australia recorded from around Geraldton in Western Australia north to the Timor Sea, from the northern Great Barrier Reef south to southern New South Wales and including Lord Howe Island.

Ecological Notes: Frequents shallow lagoon and seaward reefs, reef flats. Depth 1 – 15 m.

Additional Notes: Brightly coloured male, slender body and with lunate tail. Juveniles commonly in small schools close to coral or substrate, with green back, pale belly and often orange on top and bottom of tail base. Difficult to approach and constantly move across the substrate where they feed on small crustaceans and other invertebrates. Adults uncommon and solitary. Juveniles pictured in middle photograph, tiny juvenile 25 mm long in bottom photograph. Grows to 16 cm. 

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.336.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Thalassoma+amblycephalum. Accessed 10/07/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/thalassoma-amblycephalum.html. Accessed 10/07/18.