---
title: Checkerboard Wrasse (Halichoeres hortulanus)
scientific_name: Halichoeres hortulanus
common_name: Checkerboard Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-28T17:28:48.506Z
updated: 2026-08-14T10:55:31.666Z
tags: Checkerboard Wrasse, Halichoeres hortulanus, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/checkerboard-wrasse
---

# Checkerboard Wrasse (*Halichoeres hortulanus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** up to 27 cm
- **Depth:** 1-40 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble patches between coral heads
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- white body with a bold black checkerboard grid over the flank
- yellow patch on the back, green head with pink lines
- juveniles white with black blotches and a false eyespot on the dorsal fin
- length up to 27 cm

A white wrasse with a black grid over its flank, working the sand between coral heads at a steady pace. The pattern is unmistakable and the behavior is characteristic: it moves, stops, tips down, blows into the sand and picks something out.

That is how it lives. It takes mouthfuls of sediment, sorts small crustaceans, worms and molluscs out inside the mouth, and expels the clean sand through the gills - the same technique the sifting gobies use, done by a much larger fish.

It also follows. Rays, larger wrasses and goatfish that dig get a checkerboard in tow, taking whatever is uncovered and missed.

Juveniles are white with black blotches and a false eyespot on the dorsal fin, which points a predator at the wrong end. Adults reach 27 cm (11 in), and the biggest fish on a patch is a male that used to be female.

## Also known as

- **English:** checkerboard wrasse, Chequerboard Wrasse, Four-spot wrasse
- **Arabic:** Muesy
- **Hebrew:** יפעתן משובץ
- **French:** Arc en ciel jaune, Girelle échiquier, Labre damier
- **Italian:** Tordo scacchiera
- **German:** Schachbrett-Junker
- **Spanish:** Señorita tablero de ajedrez, Lalo ajearezado
- **Portuguese:** Bodião axedrezado, Bodião-mármore
- **Dutch:** Schaakbordlipvis
- **Czech:** kněžík šachovnicovitý
- **Japanese:** トカラベラ, Tokarabera
- **Chinese:** 四點儒艮鯛, 四齒仔, 方斑儒艮鯛
- **Russian:** Индоокеанский тамарин
- **DA:** Ternet gylte
- **FIJ:** drividrivi
- **MAL:** Nihola, നിഹോള
- **TAH:** po'ou
- **TGL:** Isdang bato, Bankilan, Bunak
- **TH:** ปลานกขุนทองตารางหมากรุก, ปลานกขุนทองลายเหลื่อม

## Scientific synonyms

- *Halichoeres centiquadrus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Halichoeres centriquadrus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Halichoeres eximius* Rüppell, 1835
- *Halichoeres hortulans* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Halichoeres hortulanus centiquadrus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Halichoeres hortulanus centriquadrus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Halichoeres notophthalmus* (Bleeker, 1856)
- *Hemitautoga centiquadrus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Labrus centiquadrus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Labrus hortulanus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Tautoga notophthalmus* Bleeker, 1856

## Range

Comoros, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/checkerboard-wrasse)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*