Fun Banded Wrasse Facts For Kids

Banded wrasse (Notolabrus fucicola) are native to the southeast Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and eastern parts of New Zealand and Australia. They are generally found in rocky reefs, freshwater, ponds, and streams. They are found in widespread categories like saltwater wrasse, yellow-banded possum wrasse, the leopard wrasse, the melanurus wrasse, the cleaner wrasse, the Thalassoma wrasse, the coris gormaid yellowtail wrasse many others. In all, they have 600 categories of this species of Labridae of phylum Chordata are beautiful and bright colored like red, yellow, and orange. They have vertical bars on their body and large teeth. Their diet depends on different mollusks, sea urchins and the small wrasse's diet is amphipods and isopods. In freshwater, these fishes need a free and spacious area in which to swim.  They are deep divers found in the range of 3.3–295.3 ft ( 1–90 m) depth.

Through references we can know that juveniles are mottled red-brown with yellow speckles also some are greenish-brown with rows of white spots along the sides. Also, there are different colors that vary from smaller age to adult. The juveniles are called fry and the grown-up fishes are called fingerling. The wrasses can shoe the sex-change property as they are juvenile they are females during lifetime as they grow some of them become males. The males are quite aggressive towards their area of habitat. Males are very territorial displaying their dorsal and anal fins. The average length of these fishes is between 7-11 in (20-30 cm) and they weigh around 11 lb (5 kg). You can also learn amazing facts about rainbow trout and amberjack.

What type of animal is a banded wrasse?

A banded wrasse is a marine fish from the Labridae family, native to the eastern Indian Ocean, Australia, and New Zealand.

What class of animal does a banded wrasse belong to?

The banded wrasse is of the Actinopterygii class of fish. There are 81 genera of this Labridae fish widely spread in New Zealand.

How many banded wrasses are there in the world?

There is a wide range of populations present of this marine fish species. There is no such particular count in numbers but they are of Least Concern for extinction.

Where does a banded wrasse live?

They have a wide distribution in many regions of New Zealand, Australia, in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, the south-western Pacific Ocean. In Australia, it is in the found southeast regions. They are also found in Norway.

What is a banded wrasse's habitat?

Wrasse Notolabrus leads a life of marine fish that is found in the rocky reefs, in the tropical as well as the subtropical waters, tidal pools, grass beds, more abundant in the South. They also inhabit freshwater and temperate regions. Their depth range is 26-130 ft (8-42 m).

Who do banded wrasses live with?

They are solitary and secretive fish like the humphead wrasse, red-banded fairy wrasse, found at less than 66 ft (20 m) depth in the sea. The colorful wrasses are common to find their habitat in kelp reefs of New South Wales.

How long does a banded wrasse live?

These Labridae fish have spent a long time living on the earth as they have wide categories of Notolabrus fishes like yellow-banded possum wrasse, white-banded possum wrasse, orange banded wrasse, and others have a lifespan of more than 30 years. 

How do they reproduce?

These species of fish are born as females with the ability to change sex, that is whilst reaching maturity it changes into a male. They are dichromatic not sexually dimorphic. Banded wrasse reproduce through a behavior known as broadcast spawning, where the female fish lay eggs and males release sperms in the water. In this state, the eggs are completely fertilized and the fertilized eggs are not eaten by others in the rocky reef. They lay 1000 eggs which hatch as females and afterward some of them change into male adults.

What is their conservation status?

Banded wrasse are found throughout New Zealand, and many parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and Australia. They are said to be not extinct and are of Least Concern according to the IUCN.

What do banded wrasses look like?

Banded wrasse, Notolabrus fucicola, are marine fish native to the eastern Indian Ocean, South Pacific, and spread over Australia and New Zealand are deep divers. They have a variety of color ranges differently in every region. These fishes of phylum Chordata have straight bars in their body, small fishes like white banded possum wrasse feeding on marine invertebrates, amphipods, and isopods. The anal fins have three spines and 10 rays and their caudal hands are slightly rounded. They have very strong teeth to crush their meal like crabs. They are found in freshwater, sea, rocky reefs, and oceans around Australia and New Zealand.

How cute are they?

This species of fish are beautiful bright red, violet, and blue with long bars, which look really cute.                                                                             

How do they communicate?

Fishes communicate in the water for different things like to alert predators to stay away, during spawning, or during fighting. They use a number of ways to communicate to each other they can smell and produce sound to each other, bioluminescence and electric impulse is a very effective and beautiful way to reach to one-other.

How big is a banded wrasse?

Banded wrasse, like banded Maori wrasse, are small in size up to 13 ft (4 m) which is a similar size to a moray eel.

How fast can a banded wrasse swim?

These small size reef wrasses are incredible swimmers, research says that juvenile fishes can swim faster than adults. They are also sharp divers found over the beds of kelp near about 3.3–295.3 ft (1–90 m) depth.

How much does a banded wrasse weigh?

The average weight of a  wrasse is about 11 lb (5 kg), whereas the largest wrasse, humphead wrasse, weighs 397 lb (180 kg). There are small categories like pink-streaked wrasse as well.

What are the male and female names of the species?

There are no special names for the female and male banded wrasse.

What would you call a baby banded wrasse?

These reef species are called fry at a young age when they grow scales and fins are called fingerlings. 

What do they eat?

Wrasses are of a wide variety and the larger wrasses crush the marine invertebrates and the smaller size wrasse act as a cleaner as they eat the leftovers of eel, snappers, and other fishes. Just like wrasses, sandager fishes also eat small crustaceans, mollusks, and sea urchins.           

Are they poisonous?

No, there is no such report of wrasse being poisonous. They are more famous for their fang-like front teeth. They are also edible. You can also eat fish like NZ parrotfish.

Would they make a good pet?

Yes, the bright-colored fishes of this species can be kept as a pet but they need a free and spacious area thus the size of the tank has to be bigger than any other fish tank.

Did you know...

The banded wrasse shows quite an aggressive nature while fighting with the other males in the tank or sea. 

Most species of wrasses, like the yellow-banded possum wrasse, like to burrow in the sand.

Can you eat banded wrasse?

Yes, wrasses are perfectly edible fishes.

What are the different types of banded wrasse?

There are more than 600 other species of banded wrasse some of them are called crimson band wrasse notolabrus, yellow-banded wrasse, blue-banded wrasse, purple parrotfish, southern purple wrasse, pink-streaked wrasse, etc. They are further divided into nine different groups.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other fish from our ribbon eel facts or electric eel fun facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable banded wrasse coloring pages.

Main image by Mark D. Norman.

Second image by Peter Southwood.