---
title: Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus)
scientific_name: Cheilinus undulatus
common_name: Napoleon Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: EN - Endangered
published: 2024-01-01T01:23:03.970Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:50.884Z
tags: Napoleon Wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/napoleon-wrasse
---

# Napoleon Wrasse (*Cheilinus undulatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** 2 m
- **Weight:** 180 kg
- **Depth:** 1-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Steep outer reef, drop-offs and channels, over coral and rubble
- **Reproduction:** Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** EN - Endangered

## How to recognise it

- thick rubbery lips and two black lines trailing from each eye
- bulging forehead hump on large adults
- maze of fine pale lines over the head, unique to each fish
- very large, to 2 m

The biggest wrasse in the world: 2 m (6.5 ft) and up to 180 kg (400 lb) of blue-green fish with thick rubbery lips, two black lines trailing back from each eye, and a bulging forehead hump on large males. A fine maze of pale lines covers the head, no two patterns alike, which is how researchers identify individuals on a reef.

Every large male started as a female. The species is a protogynous hermaphrodite: fish mature as females at around five years, and some later change sex and become the big humped males that hold territory. That has a consequence people rarely think through - killing the largest fish removes the males, and the population has to convert females to replace them, which takes years it does not have.

It is one of the few predators of the crown-of-thorns starfish, and one of even fewer that eat boxfish, pufferfish and sea hares - all animals loaded with toxins that everything else avoids. Crushing plates in the throat handle armored prey, and a Napoleon spends the day working over the reef, turning rubble and blowing sand.

Divers here meet the same individual fish repeatedly, because they hold small home ranges and live up to thirty years. That familiarity is exactly the problem: the species is Endangered and CITES-listed, sought at extreme prices by the live reef food trade, and a habituated fish that approaches boats is the easiest one in the sea to take.

## Also known as

- **English:** humphead wrasse, Double-headed Maori Wrasse, Giant Maori Wrasse
- **Hebrew:** תפאר ענק
- **French:** Labre Napoléon, Napoleon, Napoléon
- **Italian:** Pesce napoleone
- **German:** Napoleon-Lippfisch
- **Spanish:** Maorí Napoleón
- **Portuguese:** Bodião-maori-gigante, Bodião-napoleão, Peixe-napoleão
- **Dutch:** Napoleonvis
- **Polish:** wargacz garbogłowy
- **Czech:** pyskoun vlnkovaný
- **Japanese:** メガネモチノウオ, Meganemochinouo, ナポレオンフィッシュ
- **Chinese:** 大片仔, 拿破崙, 曲紋唇魚
- **Russian:** Рыба-Наполеон
- **DA:** Napoleonsfisk
- **TAH:** Mara, Parahirahi
- **TGL:** Isdang bato, Bankilan, Bungat
- **TH:** ปลานกขุนทองหัวโหนก

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cheilenus undulatus* Rüppell, 1835
- *Cheilinus godeffroyi* Günther, 1872
- *Cheilinus mertensii* Valenciennes, 1840
- *Cheilinus rostratus* Cartier, 1874
- *Cheilinus undulates* Rüppell, 1835
- *Chelinus godeffroyi* Günther, 1872
- *Chelinus mertensii* Valenciennes, 1840
- *Chelinus rostratus* Cartier, 1874
- *Chelinus undulatus* Rüppell, 1835
- *Chilinus godeffroyi* Günther, 1872
- *Crassilabrus undulatus* (Rüppell, 1835)

## Range

Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, Western Indian Ocean

---

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