---
title: Ring Wrasse (Hologymnosus annulatus)
scientific_name: Hologymnosus annulatus
common_name: Ring Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-28T17:25:38.998Z
updated: 2026-08-19T15:27:02.382Z
tags: Ring Wrasse, Hologymnosus annulatus, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/ring-wrasse
---

# Ring Wrasse (*Hologymnosus annulatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** up to 40 cm
- **Depth:** 8-40 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble beside reef, in open areas
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- long cigar-shaped body, far more slender than most wrasses
- adults dark green with narrow pale rings around the body
- juveniles bright orange-red with a white stripe along the side
- length up to 40 cm

A long, slender, dark green wrasse ringed in pale bands, cruising a few centimeters above open sand at a steady pace and covering a lot of ground.

The juveniles are orange-red with a white side stripe and look like a different animal entirely - a mistake made formally more than once in the history of the group, and one anyone repeats on their first dive.

That cigar shape is the family's fast-swimming build. Where most wrasses row with their pectoral fins, this genus uses the tail and moves properly, which is how it works large areas of open bottom for small crustaceans and fish without being caught out in the open.

And like its relatives it sleeps buried in sand, diving in at dusk. Forty centimeters (16 in), rarely still, and usually seen from behind.

## Also known as

- **English:** ring wrasse, Narrow-banded Rainbowfish, Ringed Slender Wrasse
- **Hebrew:** דק-שפה מוארך
- **French:** Colombine annelée, Labre annelé, Tamarin
- **German:** Gestreifter Hechtlippfisch
- **Spanish:** Colombina anillada
- **Portuguese:** Bodião-anelado
- **Czech:** kněžík kroužkový
- **Japanese:** ナメラベラ, Namerabera
- **Chinese:** 环纹细鳞盔鱼, 環紋全裸鸚鯛, 環紋細鱗盔魚
- **Russian:** Зебровый многочешуйный губан
- **MAL:** Vayittukadiyan, വായിട്ടുക്കടിയന്, വൈട്ടുകദിയന്
- **SW:** Pono
- **TAH:** po'ou
- **TGL:** Isdang bato, Bankilan, Bungat

## Scientific synonyms

- *Hemigumnosus semidiscus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Hologymnos annulatus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Hologymnosus semidiscus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Labrus annulatus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Labrus semidiscus* Lacepède, 1801

## Range

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

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