---
title: Chiseltooth Wrasse (Pseudodax moluccanus)
scientific_name: Pseudodax moluccanus
common_name: Chiseltooth Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-28T19:17:58.470Z
updated: 2026-08-19T15:59:20.228Z
tags: Chiseltooth Wrasse, Pseudodax moluccanus, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/chiseltooth-wrasse
---

# Chiseltooth Wrasse (*Pseudodax moluccanus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm
- **Depth:** 3-60 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coral-rich reef and drop-offs
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- dark blue-black body with a bright yellow tail base
- two blue lines running along the head
- chisel-shaped front teeth, visible at close range
- length up to 30 cm

A dark blue wrasse with a yellow tail base and, at the front, something no other wrasse here has: a pair of broad chisel-shaped incisors, more like a rodent's than a fish's.

They are for scraping. Where its relatives crush shells with throat plates, this fish shaves encrusting animals, algae and coral polyps off hard surfaces, and the flat cutting edge is exactly the tool for it. Juveniles use the same teeth for a different trade: they work as cleaners, picking parasites off larger fish.

It is the only member of its genus - one species, no close relatives, and an anatomy that sits oddly among the wrasses.

Thirty centimeters (12 in), usually alone, and more often seen on steep drop-offs than on shallow reef. Approach slowly and look at the mouth; nothing else on the reef has that face.

## Also known as

- **English:** chiseltooth wrasse, Chisel-tooth wrasse
- **French:** Labre des Moluques, Vieille ciseau
- **Spanish:** Vieja cuchilla
- **Portuguese:** Bodião tesoura
- **Japanese:** ブダイベラ, Budaibera
- **TAH:** po'ou

## Scientific synonyms

- *Odax moluccanus* Valenciennes, 1840
- *Pseudodax mollucanus* (Valenciennes, 1840)
- *Pseudodax molluccanus* (Valenciennes, 1840)
- *Pseudodax molucanus* (Valenciennes, 1840)
- *Pseudodax moluccans* (Valenciennes, 1840)

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/chiseltooth-wrasse)*
*Updated: August 19, 2026*