---
title: Surge Wrasse (Thalassoma purpureum)
scientific_name: Thalassoma purpureum
common_name: Surge Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-28T19:30:38.051Z
updated: 2026-08-19T15:17:06.805Z
tags: Surge Wrasse, Thalassoma purpureum, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/surge-wrasse
---

# Surge Wrasse (*Thalassoma purpureum*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** up to 46 cm
- **Weight:** 1.2 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-10 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** The surge zone - shallow rock and reef crest where waves break
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- large green wrasse with two broad magenta stripes running back from the eye
- heavy body, blunt head, bright green-blue tail
- in white water on the reef crest, rarely deeper than 10 m
- length up to 46 cm

The waves do the hunting for it. On the reef crest, where the swell breaks and the surge runs both ways, every set tears loose crabs, urchins and snails that were holding on a moment earlier, and this wrasse works that strip back and forth all day collecting them.

Living there takes equipment. It is heavy-bodied with large stiff pectoral fins that let it hold station in water that would roll a flatter fish, and it feeds on hard-shelled animals it crushes with plates in its throat rather than picking them delicately off rock.

The turbulence also keeps most larger predators out, so a fish that can tolerate white water gets both a food conveyor and a shortage of competition.

Forty-six centimeters (18 in), green with magenta stripes across the face, and common in a habitat almost nobody looks at. If you see one it will be from below, in a meter of foam, moving faster than you are.

## Also known as

- **English:** surge wrasse, Purple Wrasse, rainbow wrasse
- **French:** Labre de houle, Girelle hublot, Marra
- **Spanish:** Doncella de mareas
- **Portuguese:** Peixe-verde turquesa
- **Japanese:** キヌベラ, Kinu-bera, Kinubera
- **Chinese:** 四齒, 汕冷仔, 礫仔
- **TAH:** po'ou a'au

## Scientific synonyms

- *Julis semicoeruleus* Rüppell, 1835
- *Julis umbrostygma* Rüppell, 1835
- *Scarus purpureus* Forsskål, 1775
- *Thalassoma purpurea* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Thalassoma purpurem* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Thalassoma semicaeruleus* (Rüppell, 1835)
- *Thalassoma semicoeruleus* (Rüppell, 1835)
- *Thalassoma umbrostigma* (Rüppell, 1835)
- *Thalassoma umbrostygma* (Rüppell, 1835)

## Range

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

---

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