---
title: Zigzag Wrasse (Halichoeres scapularis)
scientific_name: Halichoeres scapularis
common_name: Zigzag Wrasse
taxon: Wrasse
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-28T17:36:30.787Z
updated: 2026-08-19T15:30:07.633Z
tags: Zigzag Wrasse, Halichoeres scapularis, Wrasse, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/wrasse/zigzag-wrasse
---

# Zigzag Wrasse (*Halichoeres scapularis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wrasse (*Labridae*)
- **Size:** up to 20 cm
- **Depth:** 1-20 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and seagrass flats beside reef
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- pale body with a dark zigzag line running along the flank
- green head with pink lines, yellow spot behind the gill cover
- works open sand rather than coral
- length up to 20 cm

A pale wrasse with a dark zigzag down its side, working sand flats and seagrass at a steady trot. Twenty centimeters (8 in), and one of the fish that turns a boring patch of bottom into something worth watching.

It hunts by taking mouthfuls of sand, sorting out small crustaceans and worms inside the mouth, and blowing the clean grains back out - the same technique as the checkerboard wrasse it shares the flats with. The two are easy to separate: checkerboard has a bold black grid, this one a single wavy line.

It is also a professional follower. Rays, goatfish and larger wrasses that dig get a zigzag in attendance within seconds, taking whatever is uncovered and missed, and it will follow a diver's fin wash for the same reason.

At dusk it dives into the sand and sleeps buried, which is also how it escapes - the fish is simply gone, and there is nothing above the bottom to chase.

## Also known as

- **English:** zigzag wrasse, Brownbanded Wrasse, Zig-zag Wrasse
- **Arabic:** Muesy
- **Hebrew:** יפעתן הרוכסן
- **French:** Un labre zig-zag, Girelle arc-en-ciel, Girelle zigzag
- **Italian:** Labro a zigzag
- **German:** Zickzack-Junker
- **Portuguese:** Bodião-zig-zag, Bodião-zigue-zague
- **Czech:** kněžík stříbřitý
- **Japanese:** セイテンベラ, Seitembera, Seitenbera
- **Chinese:** 側帶海豬魚, 柳冷仔, 頸帶儒艮鯛
- **DA:** Zigzag-gylte
- **DIV:** Hikaa
- **FI:** Sahahuulikala
- **MAL:** Vayittukadiyan, വായിട്ടുക്കടിയന്, വൈട്ടുകദിയന്
- **TGL:** Isdang bato, Bankilan, Bungat
- **TH:** ปลานกขุนทองขาวแถบดำ

## Scientific synonyms

- *Halichoeres coeruleovittatus* Rüppell, 1835
- *Halichoeres scalpularis* (Bennett, 1832)
- *Julis scapularis* Bennett, 1832

## Range

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

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