---
title: Pastel Ringwrasse (Hologymnosus doliatus)
scientific_name: Hologymnosus doliatus
common_name: Pastel Ringwrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-28T17:23:02.497Z
updated: 2026-08-19T16:56:00.756Z
tags: Pastel Ringwrasse, Hologymnosus doliatus, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/pastel-ringwrasse
---

# Pastel Ringwrasse (*Hologymnosus doliatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm
- **Depth:** 1-35 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble flats beside reef
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- long slender body, pale pink to greenish with narrow dark rings
- males with a broad pale saddle behind the head
- juveniles white with three orange stripes
- length up to 50 cm

A long pale wrasse ringed in narrow dark bands, working open bottom at speed. Fifty centimeters (20 in), and the larger of the two ringwrasses here.

The two are separated by shade and by depth rather than by shape: this one is pale, pinkish or greenish, and works shallow flats from a meter down; the ring wrasse is dark green and starts deeper. Both are built as cigars and both swim with the tail rather than rowing with the fins.

Juveniles are white with three orange stripes and swim in small groups, which adults never do - a large ringwrasse is always alone.

It hunts small fish and crustaceans over sand, covering ground rather than searching one patch, and disappears into the bottom at dusk. On a flat with nothing on it, the long pale fish moving in a straight line is this.

## Also known as

- **English:** pastel ringwrasse, Candy Cane Wrasse, Pastel Slender Wrasse
- **French:** Labre sucre d'orge, Colombine pastel, Labre cerclé
- **German:** Pastell-Hechtlippfisch
- **Spanish:** Colombina pastel
- **Portuguese:** Bodião-nobre
- **Czech:** kněžík pastelový
- **Japanese:** シロタスキベラ, Shirotasukibera
- **Chinese:** 清尾鸚鯛, 狹帶全裸鸚鯛, 狹帶全裸鸚鯛(淨尾全裸魚）
- **FIJ:** koli ni wai
- **TGL:** Isdang bato, Bankilan, Bungat

## Scientific synonyms

- *Hologymnos doliatus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Hologymnous doliatus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Hologymnus doliatus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Labrus doliatus* Lacepède, 1801

## Range

Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

---

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