Sixty centimeters (24 in) of heavy wrasse working rubble beside the reef, dark green-brown speckled in blue, with a tail edged in the same color.
The juvenile is the fish people know: bright orange-red with big white saddles ringed in black, and so unlike the adult that the two were long assumed to be separate species. It is also one of the most collected wrasses in the aquarium trade, sold at a few centimeters into tanks that a 60 cm adult will wreck.
Adults eat armored prey - urchins, crabs, molluscs - crushed with throat plates. Like its relative the Clown Coris it excavates, moving stones and blowing sand out of holes to get at what is under them.
And like the whole genus it sleeps buried. At dusk it dives into sand and stays there until morning, which is also its escape route: the fish vanishes downward rather than swimming off, and there is nothing to follow.
The genus. Coris Lacepède 1801 - korys (helmet). ETYFish
The species. Coris formosa (Bennett 1830) - beautiful. ETYFish
- adults dark green-brown with fine blue spots and a blue-edged tail
- juveniles orange-red with large white saddles ringed in black
- blunt head with a steep profile in large fish
- length up to 60 cm
Why it's threatened
This species is occasionally taken in the aquarium trade, but this is not considered to be a major threat.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
