A small mottled wrasse of rubble and weed, twelve centimeters (5 in), with pink lines fanning back from the eye and a smudged dark blotch on the side. It is one of the most common small fish on mixed bottom and one of the least photographed, because it never holds still and there is nothing dramatic about it.
It hunts tiny crustaceans, worms and snails, working the gaps between rubble pieces continuously through the day.
The escape is the family's: straight down into the sand. A startled Halichoeres does not swim away, it disappears into the bottom, and it sleeps buried there every night - which is why a rubble slope that was full of small wrasses at dusk is empty ten minutes later.
Color varies enough that identification comes down to the head lines and the blotch. On this coast it is background, and background is worth naming: a reef is mostly made of fish like this one.
The genus. Halichoeres Rüppell 1835 - halios (sea) + choiros (hog). ETYFish
The species. Halichoeres nebulosus (Valenciennes 1839) - cloudy. ETYFish
- small mottled green-brown fish with a pale belly
- pink-red lines radiating from the eye
- dark blotch on the flank in most fish
- length up to 12 cm
Why it's threatened
There are no major threats known to this species. It is rarely collected for the aquarium trade.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
